JOHN  HABBERTON. 


OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE 


OK, 

GREAT  NATIONAL  QUESTIONS 

AS  VIEWED   BY 

THE  MOST  PROMINENT  EDITORS 

AND   CORROBORATED   BY 

EMINENT  MEN  OF  OUR  COUNTRY, 

INCLUDING 

PRESIDENT  HARRISON,  CARDINAL  GIBBONS, 

EX-PRESIDENT  CLEVELAND,      BISHOP  POTTER, 
SENATOR  SHERMAN,  T.   V.  POWDERIY, 

JUDGE  THURMAN,  GK.\ KllAL  SCHGFIELD, 

BISHOP  FOSS,  ADMIRAL  PORTER, 

AND  SCORES  OF  OTHERS,  CONCERNING 

MARRIAGE   AND    DIVORCE,    IMMIGRATION.    LABOR    AND   CAPrM, 

RIGHTS  AND  WRONGS  OF  THE  FARMER  WOMAN'S  WORK. 

THE  RUM  POWER.  THE  NATIONAL  DEFENCES,   ETC. 


COLLECTED    AND    ARRANGED    BY 

JOHN   HABBERTON, 

AUTHOR   OF    "A   LIFE   OF   GEORGE    WASHINGTON,"    ETC.,    AND    liUITOR    OF   "THE 
SELECT    BRITISH    ESSAYISTS." 


ILLUSTRATED   BY   ROCKWOOD, 

THE      CELEBRATED      PHOTOGRAPHER,       UNION      SQUARE, 
NEW     YORK 

PHILADELPHIA  AND  ST.  LOUIS : 

JOHN  Y.  HUBER  COMPANY,  PUBLISHERS. 

1890 


Copyrighted  by 
MlLLER-MEGEE   COMPANY, 

1880. 


NOTB. 


IN  a  government  where  responsibility  rests 
upon  every  citizen  for  the  right  use  of  his  ballot^ 
and  where  "  free  fnstitutions  "  may  be  seriously 
affected  by  the  abuse  or  misuse  of  the  franchise, 
or  by  "  perverted  "  public  sentiment,  it  is  exceed- 
ingly important  that  the  soundest  information 
upon  the  conditions  and  prospects  of  our  country, 
and  the  tendencies  of  our  Government,  be  dis- 
seminated as  widely  as  possible  among  the  people. 

The  authenticity  and  value  of  these  editorial 
utterances,  and  the  special  and  cordial  approval 
of  this  volume  by  many  of  our  most  eminent 
men,  in  both  Church  and  State,  are  clearly  indi- 
cated in  the  author's  preface. 

Distinguished  as  author  and  journalist,  Mr. 
Habberton  is  eminently  fitted  for  the  task  he  has 
here  undertaken.  His  high  position,  long  main- 
tained, upon  the  editorial  staff  of  the  New  York 
Herald,  has  enabled  him  to  collect  the  opinions 


2  NOTE. 

of  those  best  qualified  to  judge  of  the  great  na- 
tional questions  now  confronting  our  Government 
for  solution,  and  appealing  to  our  people  for  pa- 
triotic thought. 

These  we  submit  as  ample  reasons  for  com- 
mending to  the  public  the  following  pages. 

THE  PUBLISHERS. 


It  is  also  worthy  of  note  that  the  excellent 
portraits  in  this  volume  are  from  Rockwood,  of  New 
York,  whose  reputation  for  superior  work  is  national. 


PREFACE. 

MOST  of  the  opinions  recorded  in  this  book  are 
those  of  many  wide-awake  editors  of  national 
prominence  and  from  different  parts  of  the 
country.  They  have  been  strung  together  as  if 
spoken  by  a  single  individual.  Nearly  all  were 
spoken — not  written,  and  are  specially  selected 
for  this  reason.  Men  do  not  always  talk  better 
than  they  write,  but  they  generally  express 
themselves  more  forcibly  in  speech  than  with 
the  pen,  for  in  writing  a  man  hesitates  to  make 
a  strong  statement  unless  he  has  time  and  space 
to  back  it  up  with  arguments  or  statistics. 

Editors  are  no  more  intelligent  than  thou- 
sands of  other  men,  but  their  bread  and  butter, 
beside  their  reputation,  depend  upon  their  close 
study  of  all  subjects  of  general  interest ;  so,  like 
other  men,  they  are  peculiarly  worth  listening 
to  on  their  own  special  departments  of  thought. 

(3) 


4  PREFACE. 

On  topics  distinctly  political  and  partisan,  editors 
differ  violently  in  print  and  often  in  spirit,  but 
on  most  of  the  subjects  touched  in  this  book 
they  are  so  well  agreed  that  many  of  my  chap- 
ters are  close  reports,  from  memory,  of  chats 
between  live  editors  of  different  papers,  after 
office  hours,  over  the  dinner-table,  or  during 
"vacation  larks."  No  names  are  given,  for 
many  of  the  gentlemen  quoted  have  talked  of 
perpetrating  books  of  their  own  on  one  or  other 
of  these  subjects,  and  will  do  themselves  fuller 
justice,  over  their  own  names,  than  a  few  quota- 
tions can  amount  to. 

Some  of  the  opinions  attributed  to  distinguished 
public  men  are  quoted  from  memory  or  from 
matter  already  published,  but  many  have  been 
given  the  compiler  for  special  use  in  this  volume 
and  in  sympathy  with  the  views  expressed  in  the 
chapters  in  which  the  opinions  appear. 

An  immense  amount  of  glorification  of  our 
country  and  its  near  future  appear  in  Fourth  of 
July  orations,  Congressional  speeches,  and  politi- 
cal harangues,  yet  all  of  it  combined  does  not 
equal  the  full  measure  of  our  resources  and 


PREFACE. 

possibilities.  But  the  greater  the  power,  pos- 
sessions, and  influence,  the  greater  the  responsi- 
bilities. It  does  not  seem,  therefore,  that  a  vol- 
ume on  the  lines  I  have  followed  needs  explana- 
tion or  apology  for  its  appearance.  The  book  is 
not  "  literary ; "  it  does  not  pretend  to  be.  It 
is  merely  a  lot  of  condensed  sense  for  the 
people,  who,  the  author  believes,  like  that  sort 
of  thing,  and  can  stand  a  great  deal  of  it. 

JOHN  HABBERTON. 

NEW  YORK, 

January,  1889. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

SOCIETY'S  FOUNDATION-STONE. 

Marriage  Customs  in  the  United  States — Shiploads  of  women  dis- 
posed of  as  wives  to  the  earlier  Virginia  Planters — The  Marriage 
Relation  should  be  closely  guarded — Divorced  people,  have  they 
moral  right  to  remarry  ? — A  rich  man  and  a  stupid  wife — Drift- 
ing apart — Duty  of  the  Church — Views  of  a  happy  wife — Novels, 
love  and  marriage — "  Beauty  and  the  Beast " — An  insulting  im- 
putation— Is  it  the  "  best  match  ?  " — Marriage  blunders  .  .  17 

CHAPTER   II. 
FOR  THE  CHILDREN'S  SAKE 

Changes  of  sentiment — American  cemeteries — Improvident  marriage 
— Infants  fed  to  the  sacred  beasts  in  India — The  Druids  in  Ancient 
Britain — "  The  Lord  will  provide  " — The  Greatest  Healer  of  human 
ills — Restraints  in  the  Public  Schools — Opinions  of  a  noted  New 
York  physician — Touching  incidents — "  The  simple  annals  of  the 
poor'" — Vicious  children — Improvident  marriage  and  the  modern 
Moloch  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  -3° 

CHAPTER   III. 
THE   DEMON  OF  DIVORCE. 

Marriage  not  a  failure — Rev.  David  Swing's  caustic  comment — Views 
of  Rabbi  Silverman — Heartlessness  of  Divorce  Court  proceedings 
-Divorced  persons  debarred  by  the  Queen  of  England — Sufler 
ings  of  the  children — "  Vice  is  a  monster  of  such  hideous  mien  " 
— Shall  we  have  a  Constitutional  Amendment  restricting  divorce  ? 
— Views  of  Bishop  Foss  and  Bishop  Whittaker — Position  of  the 
Catholic  Church  and  of  the  Hebrews — "  Church  union  cannot  be 

combated  " — "  Burn  the  bridges  " 39 

(7) 


8  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   IV. 
THE  FARMER'S  TROUBLES. 

Encumbered  with  mortgage — Energy  of  the  farmer — Lack  of  capital 
— Labor — The  farmer's  children  and  city  life — "  The  borrower  is 
servant  to  the  lender" — The  census  valuation  of  farm  lands — 
Hiram  Sibley,  the  millionaire  farmer — Twelve  Vermont  farms — 
The  Western  farmer  and  the  railroads — Co-operative  stores — 
"  Land-poor  " — Government  aid  for  the  farmers  .  .  .  .51 

CHAPTER   V. 

THE  RUM    POWER. 

Harm  done  by  the  liquor  traffic — Views  of  Bishop  Warren,  of  the 
Methodist  Church — Miss  Frances  Willard's  views — "  Petroleum" 
Nasby — Rum  in  politics — Channing't;  aphorism — Rev.  Theodore 
Cuyler's  summary  of  statistics — Causes  of  drunkenness — Ways  to 
reclaim  the  unfortunates — Control  the  demon  by  law — Public 
opinion — Bishop  Foss'  reply — Restrictive  measures  .  .  .67 

CHAPTER   VI. 

FOR  WOMAN'S  SAKE. 

Suffering  woman — Whittier's  sympathy — "  The  rolling  death  of 
drunkenness" — A  delicate  subject — The  fabled  lion  led  by  the 
fairy — American  reverence  for  woman — Let  them  try  it  .  .82 

CHAPTER   VII. 
TEMPERANCE  LIES  AND  TEMPERANCE  FACTS. 

Curse  of  rum — "  Machine  "  reformers — Rev.  Dr.  Cuyler's  proposi- 
tion— "  Does  your  church  live  up  to  it?" — "  Boys,  we  are  all 
wrong  " — Robert  Burns'  aphorism — A  New  York  rough — His 
total  abstinence — He  arraigns  the  police — Buy  the  drunkard 
back  to  respectability — The  reformation  of  John  B.  Gough — A 
touching  incident — A  common  drunkard:  an  wwcommon  re- 
former   .87 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

NATIONAL  DEFENCE. 

Our  harbors  useless — Caught  napping  by  England — Troops  and  the 
Indians — General  Sheridan's  last  report — General  Sherman's  pro- 
tests— Congressional  inactivity — Admiral  Porter  hammering  at 


CONTENTS.  9 

Congress — A  blast  from  the  late  Samuel  J.  Tilden — Desertions 
from  the  army — Statistics  from  General  Schofield's  report — Fron- 
tier life  for  the  soldier — Major  Stunner's  plan  .  .  .  .103 

CHAPTER  IX. 

OUR    ENEMIES. 

American  bravery  and  foresight — England  a  pauper  nation — Her 
national  debt  can  never  be  paid — Her  immense  class  of  dissatisfied 
people — Germany  poor — France  the  richest  of  European  nations — 
Factional  fighting  the  bane  of  the  French  Republic — China — Tar- 
tars and  the  Russian  Empire — The  big  ironclad  of  the  Italian 
navy — Our  relations  with  Canada,  Mexico  and  the  South  Amer- 
ican nations — A  British  fleet  and  our  national  capital — "  We  are 
tremendous  when  aroused  " — The  danger  of  our  defenceless  con- 
dition— Warnings  from  the  Navy  and  War  Departments— Too 
economical  to  salute  the  national  flag — Recent  moves  to  improve 
our  navy — Will  Congress  continue  this  important  work?  .  .118 

CHAPTER  X. 

LABOR. 

Laboring  men — Their  mistakes  and  their  grievances — Labor  sure  to 
be  imposed  upon — Driving  a  sharp  bargain — Low  wages  resulting 
from  competition — A  laborer  in  chains  recently  brought  for  sale 
into  the  market-place  of  a  New  England  town — But  the  people 
rise  in  their  wrath — Does  practical  slavery  exist  in  the  United 
States? — Coal  miners'and  factory  hands  compared  with  the  consis- 
lados  of  South  America — The  store  system  of  credits — Resulting 
evils  to  the  laborers  . 132 

CHAPTER  XI. 

SELF-HELP    FOR    LABOR. 

The  importance  of  being  a  "  full-handed  workman  " — Successful 
mechanics  know  more  than  one  branch  of  business — This  quality 
developed  in  new  countries — Votes  of  laborers  controlled  by  cor- 
porations—A  curious  experience  in  the  West  .  .  .  .150 

CHAPTER  XII. 

ONE  MAN'S   AS   GOOD   AS   ANOTHER. 

The  principle  of  equality — We  have  revised  it  in  one  particular — 
The  feeling  can't  be  kept  down — A  bad  start  doesn't  always  pre- 
vent a  good  finish — No  end  to  our  aspirations — The  American 
boy  gets  there — Public  life  open  to  all — Not  conceited — Merely 
self-dependent — A  prominent  example — The  spirit  not  dying  out  .  165 


10  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE  OTHER   SIDE   OF   IT. 

Any  virtue  may  become  a  vice — Sense  of  fitness  not  enough  con- 
sidered— Everybody  thinks  himself  fit  to  be  President — The  rush 
for  office — Spending  faster  than  earning — The  rage  for  dress  and 
display — Induces  rash  speculation — The  gift  of  gab — Competition 
will  slowly  help  us  out  of  the  trouble 179 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

IMMIGRATION. 

America  is  a  home — Not  an  asylum — Liberty  is  not  license — No 
paupers  need  apply — Nor  any  contract  laborers — Skilled  labor 
welcome,  if  it  comes  to  stay — Immigrant  farmers  will  do  us  good 
— Too  much  hurry  in  granting  citizenship — Foreign  faction  fights 
must  not  be  kept  up  here — Transplanted  stock  improves  rapidly  .  194 

CHAPTER  XV. 

ANNEXATION. 

We  don't  want  the  earth — We  need  more  neighbors — Not  more  chil- 
dren— Non-assimilative  races  would  weaken  us — The  Old  World's 
experience  at  land-grabbing — Let  Canada  alone  till  she  wants  us 
— Likewise  Mexico — We  have  enough  discordant  interests  now — 
We  don't  want  to  pay  other  nations'  debts  .  .  .  .  .211 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  COLORED   MAN. 

He  is  a  valuable  element — The  example  of  the  North — He  is  a  hard 
worker — He  can  learn,  will  learn,  and  does  learn — General  Arm-, 
strong's  testimony — What  Virginians  say — A  little  leaven  leaven- 
eth  the  whole  lump — He  does  not  fear  his  white  neighbors  at  the 
South — Neither  does  he  hate  them — Hands  off,  and  give  him 
time  ....  .......  22^ 

CHAPTER    XVII. 

THE   INDIAN. 

He  has  stopped  fighting — Let  us  stop  robbing  him — The  Indian  will 
work — He  has  plenty  of  brains — Capacity  for  education  abun- 
dantly proved — Records  of  the  experiment  at  Hnmpton — He 
knows  a  good  thing  when  he  sees  it — The  beneficent  effects  of  the 
Dawes  bill — Even  the  Apaches  have  worked  as  good  as  white 
men  .  ...........  252 


CONTENTS.  11 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE  PRESS. 

The  editor  is  the  nation's  schoolmaster — Also  the  most  trusty  advo- 
cate of  the  people's  rights — He  brings  the  people  together  in 
spirit  and  purpose — Always  ahead  of  Congress  and  the  govern- 
ment— Rapid  improvement  of  the  newspaper — Independence  in 
journalism — Trial  by  newspaper 266 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE  SCHOOL-ROOM. 

Boys  and  girls  who  are  to  be  men  and  women — The  schools  are  be- 
hind the  times — Too  much  fuss  and  too  little  gain — Discipline 
which  costs  too  much — Heads  stuffed,  but  hands  and  hearts 
neglected — Faults  of  teaching — About  faculties  benumbed  by  rou- 
tine work — What  has  been  done  can  be  done — The  country  boy 
ahead 277 

CHAPTER   XX. 

THE   POLITICIAN. 

The  great  national  nuisance — Never  a  statesman — Politics  for  reve- 
nue only — Worse  than  a  traitor — Often  a  good  fellow — Always  a 
corrupting  influence — Ways  that  are  dark — Every  man's  hand 
should  be  against  him — Our  liberties  in  danger  from  him — Eternal 
vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty .  298 

CHAPTER   XXI. 

RAILROADS. 

Rights  and  wrongs  of  the  great  transportation  corporations — What 
they  have  done  for  the  country  and  what  the  country  has  done  for 
them — Era  of  construction  closed  and  an  era  of  restriction  and 
regulation  begun — Why  railroad  officials  become  millionaires — 
Watering  stock — A  curious  question  which  will  be  raised  one  of 
these  days 310 

CHAPTER   XXII' 

WALL   STREET. 

A  bad  school  for  youth — The  "honor"  of  the  street  and  its  limita- 
tions— "Kings  of  the  street "»an  extinct  race — Why  men  are 
ruined — Gould  and  Gouldism — A  good  name  wins  even  in  Wall 
street — Drexel,  Morgan  &  Co.'s  views — The  speculative  spirit 
leads  to  gambling — The  "  fever  of  hell  " — How  Wall  street  men 
think  and  how  they  live  ........  334 


12  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    XXIII. 

TRUSTS. 

Origin  of  trusts — How  they  operate  to  crush  out  competitors — What 
is  said  in  their  defence — They  advance  prices  to  the  consumer — 
How  they  must  be  dealt  with — Legal  aspect  of  trusts — Why  the 
law  should  control  them 354 

CHAPTER   XXIV. 

SPECULATION — PAST,   PRESENT,    FUTURE. 

Moderate  speculation  useful  in  providing  a  permanent  market  for 
buyers  and  sellers — It  has  contributed  to  the  development  of  the 
country — Much  of  so-called  current  speculation  is  merely  gam- 
bling— The  distinction — Changes  in  character  and  methods  of 
speculation — The  crime  of  "  cornering  "  the  necessaries  of  life — 
Nemesis  that  pursues  "  cornerers  " — Jim  Keene's  fate — Old 
Hutch's  tactics  .  374 

CHAPTER    XXV. 

BANKS  AND  BANKING. 

New  York  no  longer  the  sole  dictator  in  the  money  market — Why 
Western  business  men  are  now  independent  of  metropolitan 
money-lenders  —  The  increase  of  "reserve  cities" — Banking 
methods  to  dodge  the  laws — How  unscrupulous  bank  directors 
get  rich — Why  sa  many  cashiers  go  to  Canada  and  how  to  stop 
them — Noted  living  bankers  . 392 

CHAPTER   XXVI. 

OUR    CITIES. 

Cities  are  necessaiy  evils — But  greatly  to  be  avoided — City  life  is 
dangerous  to  most  persons — Unnatural  influences  are  inevitable — 
Hard  on  the  purse  and  hard  on  the  heart — Poverty's  last  refuge — 
The  home  of  the  thief — The  touch  of  nature  lost — Temptations 
innumerable — Restraints  few — No  place  for  country  boys  and  girls 
— City  forms  of  government  must  change — THE  DARKER  SIDE — 
The  sorrows  of  the  city  poor — Friendless  and  alone — Miserable 
homes — Health  and  morals  menaced — All  depends  on  one  life — 
Chances  and  misfortunes — Sickness  and  death — The  story  of  the 
Ganges  paralleled — The  majority  are  industrious — An  army  of 
heroes — Religion  and  rum  their  only  comforts — Child  work  and 
child  ruin — Benevolence  wearied  and  despairing  ....  418 


CONTENTS.  13 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

RELIGION. 

Religion  is  in  no  danger — The  letter  suffers  but  the  spirit  grows — 
Essentials  were  never  more  prominent — The  tree  is  judged  by  its 
fruit — Proselyting  has  gone  out  of  date — Denominations  have 
ceased  to  fight — A  life  as  well  as  a  faith 446 

CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

CHURCH  WORK. 

The  proof  of  sincerity — There  is  plenty  of  it — The  live  churches  are 
those  that  work — A  net  that  hurts  no  fish — Laborare  est  orare — 
The  harvest  great  and  laborers  numerous — Some  specimen  efforts 
and  workers — The  field  is  the  world 454 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

RECREATION. 

We  haven't  enough  of  it — What  we  have  is  not  good  enough — Few 
outdoor  sports — Theatres,  circuses  and  shows — Yacht  and  boat 
races — Base  ball — Social  recreations — At  full  drive  or  not  at  all — 
No  holidays — The  principal  cause  of  Sabbath-breaking — Humor 
in  demand — More  money  for  amusement  than  anything  else  .  473 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

THE  AMERICAN   PHYSIQUE. 

It  is  in  danger — Women  are  not  what  they  should  be — Our  men  less 
so — Numerous  natural  causes  for  the  change — A  famous  athlete  on 
the  situation — Too  much  nerve — Too  little  blood  and  muscle — 
Everybody  wants  to  be  indoors — The  change  can  be  stopped — 
Some  practical  suggestions 483 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

WOMAN   AND    HER   WORK. 

One  "  woman's  right "  secured — She  has  a  chance  almost  everywhere 
— The  liberation  of  man — Woman's  wits  sharpen  quickly — Advan- 
tages over  male  workers — Woman  need  not  marry  for  a  home — 
The  tables  turned — Some  effects  upon  society — Never  enslaved 
unless  stupid — The  "  Song  of  the  Shirt" — The  coming  generation  489 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 

THE    KITCHEN. 
"  The  blood  is  the  life  " — ft  ought  to  be  better — Plenty  of  material 


14  CONTENTS. 

for  enriching  it — Eat  to  live — Brain  needs  blood — We  need  more 
of  both — Fewer  cooks  than  preachers — A  bad  place  to  save  money 
— Yet  we  waste  as  much  as  we  eat — Bad  bread  the  unpardonable 
sin — Too  little  variety — Make  the  dining-room  attractive  .  .  503 

CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

OUR   SERVANTS. 

The  worst  servants  in  the  world — No  proper  source  of  supply — All 
the  good  ones  marry — Most  of  the  mistresses  die — No  one  knows 
how  to  train  them — Old-fashioned  "  help  " — A  leaf  from  the  Old 
World's  book — Our  young  women  too  "  uppish  " — Try  man's  plan 
— A  possible  check  to  extravagance — The  only  way  out  .  .516 

CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

OUR   LITERATURE. 

A  nation  of  readers — Books  to  be  found  everywhere — The  Sunday- 
School  library — Chautauqua's  great  work — The  American  author 
is  a  busy  man — Good  books  make  their  way,  sooner  or  later — 
Abler  men  should  go  into  authorship — Our  literature  making  its 
way  abroad — American  writers'  characteristics — Our  literature  is 
clean,  earnest  and  hopeful 1,29 

CHAPTER  XXXV. 

OUR   THEATRES. 

The  theatre  has  come  to  stay — What  are  we  going  to  do  about  it? — 
We  must  make  the  best  of  it  by  making  the  theatre  decent — People 
demand  entertainment — Good  plays  and  bad — Managers  do  not 
deserve  all  the  blame — Shows  will  be  exactly  as  their  patrons  want 
them — No  need  for  fear  of  the  stage,  if  the  better  classes  will  do 
their  duty 545 

CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

AMERICAN   HUMOR. 

The  salt  that  will  save  us — A  nation  of  jokers — Our  Puritan  and 
cavalier  ancestors  were  fond  of  fun-r-President  Lincoln's  jokes — 
Humor  in  the  pulpit — Fun  in  the  newspapers — Prentice — Mark 
Twain  — Nasby—Nye  and  Riley— Miles  O'Reilley  — "  Uncle 
Remus"— John  Hay— "Bob"  Burdetle— All  healthy  fun— No 
malignity  in  our  jokes — The  best-natured  people  alive  .  .  .  560 


CONTENTS.  15 

CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

THE  HIGHER   EDUCATION. 

A  land  full  of  colleges — How  these  institutions  began  to  exist — 
Tributes  to  American  regard  for  intelligence  and  education — 
Something  better  needed — No  lack  of  money — Views  of  Presidents 
Dwight  of  Yale,  Eliot  of  Harvard,  McCosh  of  Princeton,  White 
of  Cornell,  Bartlett  of  Dartmouth,  and  Gilman  of  Johns  Hopkins — 
Bishop  Potter  on  the  place  of  the  scholar  in  America  .  .  -579 

CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

CULTURE. 

A  much-abused  word,  but  a  good  one — What  culture  is,  and  what  it 
is  not — We  can't  have  too  much  of  the  genuine  article — Culture' 
doesn't  mean  merely  good  taste  in  bric-a-brac — Culture  means 
character,  as  far  as  the  culture  goes — It  does  not  depend  upon  a 
man's  clothes,  or  the  house  he  lives  in — Some  notable  instances — 
Culture's  short-comings — "  Despise  not  the  day  of  small  things  "  .  610 

CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

OUR  GREAT  CONCERN. 

Our  country  first  and  foremost — No  sectional  differences — No  foreign 
interests  or  entanglements — The  people  first,  the  party  afterward — 
Loyalty  to  party  means  disloyalty  to  the  republic — Meddlers  must 
be  suppressed — All  in  the  family — One  for  all  and  all  for  one — 
E  Pluribus  Unum 624. 


LIST  OF  PORTRAITS. 


THE  AUTHOR           .             .  .           frontispiece. 

BISHOP  FOSS      .  facing     50 

MISS    FRANCES    E.    WILLARD  .                  .                             68 

GENERAL   SCHOFIELD       .  .                  .                                    IO6 

EX-PRESIDENT    CLEVELAND  .                  .                           140 

P.    M.    ARTHUR                       ...  I5O 

BISHOP    POTTER          .                  .  .                  .                           IQO 

PRESIDENT    HARRISON  .                  .                                   242 

GENERAL   S.    C.    ARMSTRONG  .                  .                           246 

JUDGE   T.    M.    COOLEY       ...  324 

CORNELIUS    VANDERBILT        .  .                  .                           332 

INSPECTOR    BYRNE              .  .                  .                                   444 

REV.    T.    DEWITT   TALMAGE  .                  .                          446 

REV.    RUSSELL    H.    CONWELL  .                  .                                   454 

REV.    WAYLAND    HOYT               .  .                  .                          456 

REV.    GEORGE    RAINSFORD  .                                                     458 

CARDINAL   GIBBONS                    .  .                  .                          464 

WILLIAM    BLAIKIE              .  .                 .                                   486 

EDWIN    BOOTH             .                  .  .                  .                           550 

LAWRENCE   BARRETT        .  .                 .                                 556 

JAMES    WHITCOMB    RILEY       .  .                                             5/O 

BILL    NYE               ....  57O- 

PRESIDENT   ELIOT                      .  .                 .                         582 

PRESIDENT    DWIGHT         .  .                 .                                  5QO 

T.    V.    POWDERLY  "           636 
(16) 


CHAPTER  I. 

SOCIETY'S   FOUNDATION-STONE. 

THERE  ought  to  be  a  radical  change  in  mar- 
riage customs  in  the  United  States,  if  we  would 
avoid  a  terrible  deterioration  of  -social  life. 

In  the  early  days  of  our  country,  when  most 
of  the  inhabitants  were  representatives  of  the 
classes  which  have  supplied  populations  for  all 
new  countries,  marriage,  as  among  the  lower 
order  of  peasantry  everywhere  else  in  the  world, 
and  among  the  savages  besides,  was  a  mere  mat- 
ing of  male  and  female.  Women  were  brought 
over  by  shiploads  to  be  disposed  of,  as  wives,  to 
the  earlier  Virginia  planters ;  no  stories  have 
come  down  to  us  of  cruelties  or  mismatings,  yet 
the  transactions  were  as  plainly  a  matter  of  pur- 
chase and  sale  as  any  in  the  subsequent  trade  in 
black  slaves.  The  rapid  settlement  of  the  country, 
the  improvement  in  civilization,  which  has  come 
through  the  multiplication  of  large  villages  and 
of  cities,  the  general  facilities  for  obtaining  edu- 
cation, such  as  exist  in  no  other  country,  have 

2  (17) 


18  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

made  ours  the  land  above  all  others  in  which 
generations  may  rise  rapidly  from  the  social  posi- 
tion of  their  ancestors.  Consequently  there  is  no 
part  of  the  world  in  which  the  marriage  relation 
should  be  so  closely  guarded  as  here. 

Does  this  seem  over  particular,  in  this  land  of 
freedom  and  era  of  emancipation  from  narrow 
views  ?  Then  look  carefully  over  a  list  of  the 
richest  and  most  influential  men  who  have  come 
to  the  front  within  the  past  few  years,  particu- 
larly in  the  newer  States ;  regard  their  marital 
relations — this  will  do  no  harm  to  any  of  them 
who  are  respectable — and  consider  the  nature  of 
the  influence  which  these  people  exert  upon 
society  around  them.  The  subject  is  not  easy  or 
pleasant  to  discuss,  but,  fortunately,  there  are  not 
many  people  who  cannot  discuss  it  for  them- 
selves. 

To  expect  to  bring  about  the  desired  change 
by  religious  means,  which  are  the  first  to  sug- 
gest themselves  either  to  the  Christian  or  the 
philosopher,  is  impossible.  However  desirable  it 
may  be  our  political  system  has  made  it  impossible 
for  us  as  a  body  of  people  to  go  back  to  the  customs 
of  a  period  which  was  superior  to  ours  in  regard 
to  the  sanctity  of  marriage  relations.  However 
much  these  relations  may  be  regarded  as  sac 
raments  by  some,  and  as  specially  sanctified  by 
others,  the  making  of  the  marriage  relation  a 
matter  of  mere  civil  contract  has  become  so  gen- 


SOCIETY'S  FOUNDATION-STONE.  19 

erally  a  fact  in  law  that  it  is  impossible  any 
longer  to  expect  the  majority  of  people  to  abide  by 
the  precedents  and  customs  of  different  churches. 
The  fact  is,  the  churches  don't  do  it  themselves. 
Divorced  people  who  have  no  moral  right  to  re- 
marry are  continually  taking  new  partners  and 
ministers  are  performing  the  ceremony. 

The  danger,  aside  from  easy  divorce,  of  which 
more  anon,  is  in  the  probable  change  of  social 
condition  of  the  contracting  parties.  Men  and 
women,  mating  in  their  very  early  years,  as  is 
the  custom  in  all  small  villages  and  agricultural 
districts,  frequently  find  themselves,  by  some 
happy  accident,  raised  to  a  higher  degree  of  finan- 
cial standing  than  they  had  expected,  and  in  the 
newer  portions  of  the  country,  which  contain 
a  large  majority  of  our  population,  such  change 
of  material  condition  carries  social  importance 
and  influence  with  it.  As  would  be  the  case  any- 
where else  in  the  world,  the  change  of  condition 
shows  itself  differently  in  man  and  woman.  The 
man  of  means  quickly  finds  himself  a  man  of 
mark  among  his  fellows,  and  rapidly  receives  a 
vast  amount  of  that  valuable  education  which 
comes  from  what  some  philosopher  has  called  "  the 
attrition  of  minds."  His  wife,  relieved  of  the 
drudgery  which  is  almost  inseparable  from  pov- 
erty, does  not  follow  her  husband  intellectually, 
unless  such  is  her  natural  bent.  She  consequently 
devotes  her  leisure  and  improved  material  condi- 


20  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

tion  to  luxury  and  to  show.  From  this  difference 
of  conditions  in  a  family  which  was  once  united 
can  be  found  the  basis  of  many  thousands  of 
divorce  suits. 

You  take  exception  to  the  expression  "intel- 
lectual?" You  are  wrong.  I  know  it  is  the  fash- 
ion to  regard  literature,  law,  theology  and  other 
so-called  learned  professions  as  sole  possessors 
of  the  world's  intellect,  but  this  is  all  nonsense. 
It  requires  just  as  much  intellect — intellect  of 
just  as  high  order — to  put  a  railroad  through 
a  new  country,  or  to  invent  a  new  threshing 
machine,  or  to  manage  a  turbulent  town-meeting, 
or  to  work  a  bill  through  the  Legislature,  as  to 
write  a  poem,  sermon,  or  novel,  or  to  plead  a  case 
in  court.  Edison  and  Ericsson  are  as  much  men 
of  intellect  as  Longfellow  or  Lowell ;  the  differ- 
ence in  their  lives  is  one  of  taste  and  detail — 
not  of  brain  and  intellectual  endeavor.  The  posi- 
tion in  which  money  places  a  man  anywhere,  ex- 
cept in  the  large  cities — and  it  isn't  safe  to  except 
these  much — compels  him  to  use  his  intellect  a 
great  deal,  and  to  sharpen  it  frequently  Unless 
his  wife  is  his  partner  in  every  sense  of  the  word, 
she  is  going  to  be  left  behind.  That  is  not  the 
worst  of  it ;  there  are  plenty  of  bright  women 
lying  in  wait  for  the  man  who  has  plenty  of 
money  and  a  stupid  wife. 

Among  those  not  yet  married  the  same  danger 
is  ever  apparent.  Men  have  always  been  guided 


SOCIETY'S  FOUNDATION-STONE.  21 

more  by  impulse  than  reason  in  the  selection  of 
their  mates,  and  to  this  day  philosophers  often 
marry  fools.  Consequently  it  is  not  surprising 
that  young  men  of  strong  natural  intelligence 
and  great  energy,  who  nevertheless  have  not 
yet  received  their  fair  start  in  life  or  developed 
their  powers  to  the  uttermost,  select  their  brides 
through  some  mere  fancy  or  caprice,  which  might 
never  lead  to  bad  results  were  their  condition  in 
life  always  to  remain  as  it  was  in  the  beginning. 
But  the  reports  of  hundreds  of  divorce  cases, 
which  have  amused  the  public  to  some  extent, 
disgusted  it  still  more,  and  horrified  the  thinking 
portion,  show  that  alleged  incompatibilities  are 
generally  the  results  of  changes  of  condition, 
which  have  caused  husband  and  wife  to  drift 
apart  for  reasons  not  at  all  related  to  the  conjugal 
state. 

It  would  be  natural  to  suppose  that  the  churches 
would  give  the  subject  special  attention,  the 
world's  morality  being  more  dependent  upon 
proper  marriage  than  all  other  influences  com- 
bined, religion  itself  not  excepted.  Well,  the 
church  does  something  in  this  direction.  It  does 
a  great  deal,  but  not  one-thousandth  part  of  what 
is  necessary.  A  pastor  of  no  matter  what  de- 
nomination gladly  welcomes  the  opportunity, 
which,  nevertheless,  is  seldom  made  by  himself, 
to  urge  upon  young  people  the  seriousness  of  the 
marriage  relation,  the  necessity  of  affection,  con- 


22  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

stancy  and  forbearance,  and  to  show  them  to  the 
best  of  his  ability  glowing  pictures  of  the  final 
results  of  conjugal  faithfulness.  But  constant 
warnings,  such  as  are  given  against  a  great  many 
sins  of  less  serious  influence  upon  the  world,  are 
seldom  heard  in  churches.  Homilies  on  the  sub- 
ject of  marriage  are  ordered  by  some  denomina- 
tions to  be  delivered  once  in  three  months.  If 
they  were  heard  once  in  three  days  their  injunc- 
tions would  be  none  too  frequent  for  the  necessi- 
ties of  the  great  mass  of  people  who  are  most 
interested  in  the  marriage  relation,  or,  at  least, 
most  curious  about  it. 

A  happy  wife,  happy  during  and  after  half  a 
lifetime  spent  in  wedlock  which  did  not  escape 
the  usual  number  of  family  troubles  and  sorrows, 
said  once  to  me  that  the  trouble  with  marriage 
was  that  conjugal  impulse  and  conjugal  sense 
were  the  scarcest  faculties  of  the  feminine  nature. 
I  would  not  dare  quote  this  if  it  were  not  said  by 
a  woman  instead  of  a  man.  Desiring  at  times  to 
raise  expectant  brides  to  the  highest  sense  of 
their  coming  responsibilities  and  privileges,  but 
reluctant  to  put  her  own  heart  upon  her  sleeve, 
she  tried  to  find  something  in  print  to  give  them 
by  way  of  counsel  and  admonition,  but  she  did 
not  succeed.  Novels  about  love  and  marriage 
can  be  found  by  the  thousands.  How  many  of 
them  are  of  any  value  at  all  for  purposes  of  in- 
struction and  forewarning  ?  I  leave  the  answer 


SOCIETY'S  FOUNDATION-STONE.  23 

to  women  who  most  read  novels.  From  those 
who  are  mothers  I  have  never  been  able  to  obtain 
the  names  of  a  half  dozen. 

There  seems  to  be  snch  a  thing  as  inheritance 
by  sex.  Woman  was  for  thousands  of  years  the 
slave  or  the  plaything  of  man,  and  she  is  uncon- 
sciously but  terribly  avenging  herself  for  the 
wrongs  done  her  by  the  ruder  sex.  The  best  she 
could  hope  for  in  earlier  days,  the  best  that  many 
of  her  sex  now  dare  hope  for,  is  home,  protection 
and  kind  treatment.  The  kindness  may  be  that 
the  man  shows  to  his  horse  or  his  dog,  perhaps 
to  his  friend,  but  the  fact  that  the  woman  is  to  be 
legally  his  equal,  the  appreciation  of  this,  is  as 
rare  as  the  resolve  of  the  woman  herself  to  make 
herself  equal  to  the  position. 

What  is  the  result  ?  Why,  girls,  sweet  girls, 
girls  whom  good  men  regard  as  only  a  little  lower 
than  the  angels,  often  marry  for  causes  which 
should  not  justify  any  but  the  commonest  women 
in  marrying  at  all.  A  girl  whom  all  of  us  adore 
for  her  goodness,  delicacy  and  sweetness,  sud- 
denly appalls  us  some  day  by  accepting  as  her 
husband  some  gross  fellow  who  has  nothing  but 
his  pocket-book  to  recommend  him.  Were  she 
to  attach  herself  to  him  without  marriage  vows 
and  ceremony,  although  perhaps  with  absolute 
honesty  of  devotion  and  singleness  of  purpose, 
the  world  would  be  horrified.  Yet  where  is  the 
difference  as  regards  her  own  life  ?  Many  other 


24  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

women  know,  if  she  does  not,  that  no  elaborate- 
ness of  ceremony  or  solemnity  can  ever  make  a 
perfect  marriage  between  a  woman  and  a  boor. 
Yet  the  old  story  of  "  Beauty  and  the  Beast"  is 
repeated  every  day  a  thousand  times,  except  that 
the  fairy  touch  which  transformed  the  beast  into 
a  gentleman  never  occurs  nowadays — except  in 
novels. 

There  is  prevalent  a  stupid  notion,  born  of  vul- 
gar natures,  too  vulgar  to  understand  that  the 
Almighty  never  endowed  humanity  with  any 
quality  which  had  not  a  noble  purpose,  that  it  is 
not  safe  to  let  young  people  know  or  think  any- 
thing about  the  realities  of  marriage.  People 
allude  at  once  to  fixed  passion  as  if  the  only 
passion  possible  to  the  marriage  state  were  physi- 
cal, and  as  if  the  companionship,  sympathy,  de- 
votion, tenderness  and  continuity  of  a  friendship 
solemnly  pledged  for  life,  a  friendship  of  a  char- 
acter that  children  instinctively  long  for  and 
youths  desire  more  earnestly  than  all  things  else 
combined,  never  entered  into  the  thoughts  of 
young  people.  This  is  an  insulting  imputation 
upon  your  children  and  mine  and  of  every  other 
man's  beside. 

Strong  sense  of  duty  may  do  much  to  correct 
the  ruinous  notion  of  young  women  regarding 
marriage,  but  it  is  not  enough  in  itself.  Women 
of  strong  sense  of  duty  are  probably  commoner 
than  men  with  the  same  desirable  qualification. 


SOCIETY'S  FOUNDATION-STONE.  25 

Yet  all  of  us  know  of  men  who  have  strayed  from 
married  mates  who  were  pure,  faithful,  and  duti- 
ful— well,  everything  that  a  conscientious  servant 
could  be.  But,  if  a  man's  wife  is  no  more  to  him 
than  a  first-class  servant,  she  cannot  prevent  him 
yielding  to  temptation  if  he  is  so  disposed.  No 
man  worthy  of  the  name  marries  for  the  sake  of 
obtaining  a  servant.  It  is  far  more  convenient, 
besides  infinitely  cheaper,  to  obtain  servants  and 
housekeepers  through  the  ordinary  channels. 
Religion  is  the  strongest  influence  for  good  that 
humanity  knows,  but  religion  alone  cannot  make 
a  perfect  wife  of  a  well-meaning  woman.  There 
is  no  condition  of  life  in  which  one  virtue  can  be 
successfully  substituted  for  another,  and  no 
amount  of  prayer  and  faith  can  make  a  good 
wife  of  a  good  woman  without  distinct  conjugal 
impulse  and  purpose. 

Neither  can  the  maternal  instinct,  an  honest 
impulse  which  of  itself  has  made  wives  of  many 
good  women,  who  otherwise  never  would  have 
married  at  all.  To  be  the  mother  of  a  man's 
children  should  and  may  entitle  a  woman  to  high 
respect,  but  many  Mormons,  who  heartily  respect 
their  wives,  do  not  hesitate  to  seek  companionship 
of  other  women. 

A  womar  needs  the  conjugal  instinct  to  make 
a  good  wife  of  herself  and  a  happy  and  faithful 
man  of  her  husband.  If  it  is  not  in  her  she 
should  acquire  it  before  giving  her  hand  and  life 


26  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

to  any  man.  The  better  the  man,  the  more  per- 
sistently should  she  hesitate  before  marrying 
without  this  requisite  quality.  The  mother  who 
does  not  inculcate  the  necessity  of  this  impulse 
and  quality  is  more  remiss  of  her  duty  than  if 
she  left  her  children's  stockings  undarned  and 
their  dinners  uncooked. 

As  nearly  all  affection  concerns  itself  with  the 
relations  of  the  sexes,  and  particularly  with  what 
is  alleged  to  be  love,  it  is  commonly  assumed  that 
young  women  are  sufficiently  instructed  through 
desultory  reading  on  what  is  frequently  called 
the  grand  passion.  This  appellation,  "  grand 
passion,"  truly  describes  what  the  novelists 
usually  give  us  as  love,  and  is  no  more  education 
or  preparation  of  the  young  person  contemplat- 
ing marriage  than  the  outside  of  a  lot  of  school- 
books  would  be  to  a  student  desiring  to  graduate 
at  a  college.  The  novelist  prudently  ends  his 
story  where  marriage  begins.  Up  to  that  time 
everything  is  very  plain  sailing  for  both  man 
and  woman,  but  there,  where  the  necessity  for 
knowledge  begins,  the  novelist  discreetly  ends 
his  tale.  How  can  he  do  more  ?  Were  he  to 
make  his  story  as  it  should  be,  in  the  light  of 
human  experience,  it  is  doubtful  whether  young 
men  and  young  women  would  read  it  at  all. 

Is  all  the  blame  of  marriage  failures  to  be  at- 
tributed to  women?  By  no  means.  The  men 
are  terribly  faulty  creatures,  but  it  is  the  genera? 


SOCIETY'S  FOUNDATION-STONE.  27 

opinion  that,  through  some  reason  or  collection 
of  reasons,  the  conjugal  instinct  in  man  is  more 
fully  developed  than  in  woman.  Most  of  us  know 
of  men  not  very  good,  some  of  them  not  good  at 
all,  who  become  model  husbands  from  the  time 
of  marriage.  How  many  know  of  wild  women, 
of  careless  girls,  of  whom  the  same  could  be 
said  ?  Whether  this  is  due  to  the  invisible  con- 
nection between  the  material  and  the  spiritual; 
whether  woman's  nature  is  kept  in  an  embryonic 
state  to  the  verge  of  deterioration  by  the  modern 
custom  of  bringing  up  girls  in-doors,  denying 
them  physical  exercise,  separating  them  from  as- 
sociations with  their  brothers,  to  say  nothing  of 
other  members  of  the  ruder  sex ;  whether  the 
increasing  prosperity  of  the  world,  which  makes 
it  no  longer  necessary  that  the  entire  interests 
of  the  family,  including  some  of  the  confidences 
between  husband  and  wife,  should  be  heard  by 
children  as  once  they  were,  the  fact  certainly  is 
that  the  opinion  which  the  young  girl  at  the 
present  day  has  of  matrimony  is  one  of  the  most 
appallingly  inaccurate  notions  that  can  be  en- 
countered in  conversation  anywhere. 

Then  how  is  the  desired  change  to  be  brought 
about  ?  Only  through  public  sentiment,  in  which 
the  churches  ought  to  take  the  lead.  Marriage 
by  accident,  which  is  the  common  method,  should 
be  frowned  upon  and  discouraged,  no  matter  how 
romantic  or  "  cunning "  the  preliminaries  may 


28  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

seem.  Everybody  knows  that  men  never  enter 
into  a  business  partnership,  which  may  be  termi- 
nated at  any  time,  without  some  sense  of  the  fitness 
and  compatibility  of  the  contracting  parties. 
Were  they  to  fail  in  this  respect,  all  of  their  friends 
would  protest,  and  all  of  their  acquaintances 
would  make  fun  of  them.  Both  parties  would 
suffer  in  business  reputation  by  such  a  blunder. 
It  should  be  the  same,  though  far  more  earnestly, 
regarding  the  life-partnership  that  is  formed  at  a 
wedding.  All  relatives  of  the  contracting  parties 
have  at  least  one  interest  at  stake  which  justifies 
them  in  protesting  against  a  blunder — I  allude 
to  family  reputation. 

Then  aren't  young,  tender,  loving  hearts  to  be 
allowed  to  choose  for  themselves  ?  Nonsense ! 
How  much  of  love,  in  the  true  meaning  of  the 
word,  is  to  be  found  in  the  great  majority  of 
marriages  ?  If  men,  as  a  class,  loved  their 
sweethearts  as  much  as  they  loved  their  dogs, 
there  would  be  less  ground  for  complaint ;  but 
men  seldom  tire  of  their  dogs  ;  who  is  there  that 
does  not  know  men  who  tire  of  their  wives  ? 

Am  I  harping  again  upon  woman's  failure  to 
remain  dear  to  her  husband  ?  No ;  but  I  do  say 
that  the  girl  who  makes  the  "  best  match,"  as  the 
saying  is,  and  by  marrying  money  marries  above 
her  station,  is  accepting  more  than  she  may  after- 
ward be  able  to  live  up  to.  Marriages  should  be 
between  equals — persons  who  are  competent  to 


SOCIETY'S  FOUNDATION-STONE.  29 

support  one  another  in  any  and  every  condition 
to  which  their  material  life  can  ever  lead  them. 

As  for  men,  the  greatest  sinners,  though  not 
the  greatest  sufferers,  by  marriage  blunders,  the 
man  who  marries  except  with  the  idea  of 
making  his  wife  his  closest  companion,  should 
be  regarded  by  all  his  acquaintances  a  deliberate 
scoundrel.  A  chance  passion  is  no  excuse  for 
marriage ;  neither  is  a  condescending  pity.  The 
man  who  marries  merely  for  the  sake  of  getting 
a  permanent  cook,  housekeeper  or  plaything,  is 
equally  a  scoundrel,  and  deserves  more  earnest 
and  general  execration  than  if  he  entered  into 
familiar  relations  with  a  woman  without  the  for- 
mality of  marriage.  The  whole  community 
should  be  on  guard  against  man  or  woman  who 
makes  any  less  of  marriage  ties  than  the  highest 
honor  demands. 

Some  people  whose  conjugal  relations  are  ir- 
regular, are  irreproachable  otherwise,  do  you 
say  ?  Yes  ;  but  you  can  say  as  much  about  some 
thieves  and  forgers ;  except  for  their  one  fault 
they  are  good  fellows.  The  moral  influence  upon 
the  community  of  an  unfaithful  or  careless  hus- 
band or  wife  is  worse  than  that  of  a  common 
criminal,  for  there  is  no  fixed  passion  in  human 
nature  that  causes  people's  minds  to  dwell  upon 
theft  or  forgery  or  murder,  and  to  make  excuses 
for  the  persons  who  are  guilty  of  them. 


CHAPTER  II. 
FOR  THE  CHILDREN'S  SAKE. 

CHANGES  of  sentiment  which  may  be  necessary 
to  the  improvement  of  the  marriage  state  are  so 
largely  mental  and  spiritual  that  it  is  useless  to 
invoke  the  assistance  of  the  law  in  their  behalf. 
But  there  is  one  step  that  might  be  taken  by 
legislation,  in  the  direction  of  reform,  and  that  is, 
to  brand  as  a  criminal  any  one  who  marries  with- 
out proper  assurance  of  support  for  his  probable 
family. 

The  love,  so  called,  which  brings  young  people 
together  in  life-long  bonds  is  generally  in  its  be- 
ginning a  passing  fancy  which  casts  reason  to  the 
winds  ;  consequently,  a  full  half  of  the  occupants 
of  American  cemeteries  and  probably  those  of  all 
other  countries  are  children  who  should  never 
have  been  born — children  who  would  not  have 
died  had  their  parents  been  from  the  first  intelli- 
gently and  financially  able  to  have  them  properly 
cared  for.  Nearly  all,,  of  the  terrible  aggregate 
of  suffering  in  large  cities  which  charitable  and 
benevolent  persons  are  called  upon  to  relieve  is 
due  to  improvident  marriage ;  first  or  last,  it  may 

(30) 


FOR  THE  CHILDREN'S  SAKE.  31 

be  traced  to  this  source.  Human  beings  have  no 
right  to  mate  like  beasts  in  this  day  and  age,  even 
if  a  church  can  be  found  which  will  solemnize 
the  union.  No  one  will  deny  that  the  parents  of 
children  imperfectly  fed  and  cared  for  suffer  in- 
tensely over  the  troubles  of  the  unfortunates,  but 
what  good  is  that  to  the  little  wretches  for  whose 
existence  they  are  responsible — human  beings 
who  through  no  will  or  purpose  of  their  own  have 
been  brought  into  the  world  only  to  suffer  for  the 
heedlessness  of  others  ? 

The  world  now  regards  human  sacrifice  with 
horror.  Byes  stream  with  tears  over  the  stories 
of  infants  fed  to  sacred  beasts  or  serpents  in  India, 
of  the  wicker  figures  filled  with  children  who  were 
burned  in  ancient  Britain  by  the  Druids,  but  all 
the  savage  priests  of  England's  mest  savage  period 
did  not  sacrifice  as  many  children  as  suffer  and 
die  in  a  year  in  one  large  city — suffer  and  die 
literally  as  sacrifices  for  the  sins  of  their  parents. 

"  The  Lord  will  provide."  Yes,  the  man  who 
has  not  seen  startling  illustrations  of  this  promise 
must  have  gone  through  the  world  with  his  eyes 
blinded.  Even  the  old  pagans  used  to  admit  that 
occasionally  the  gods  cared  for  those  who  were 
unable  to  care  for  themselves.  But  that  the  Lord 
sometimes  performs  a  miracle  is  no  sign  that  hu- 
manity should  throw  common  sense  and  the  prov- 
ident virtues  to  the  winds.  The  greatest  healer 
of  human  ills  whom  history  records  was  Jesus. 


32  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

who  went  about  healing  the  sick,  but  even  He  did 
not  extend  His  beneficent  influence  upon  living 
humanity  beyond  a  tiny  portion  of  a  section  of 
one  of  the  great  subdivisions  of  the  world,  and 
He  gave  but  three  years  to  the  work,  which  was 
only  incidental  to  his  spiritual  mission.  The 
providence  of  God  was  not  designed  as  a  substi- 
tute for  the  improvidence  of  man.  No  one  will 
be  quicker  to  admit  this  than  the  best  Christian. 
Still  less  was  it  designed  to  encourage  the  sel- 
fishness and  self-gratifying  instincts  of  man  or 
woman. 

A  "  grand  passion"  should  be  no  excuse  in  law 
or  morals  for  the  bringing  of  helpless  creatures 
into  existence.  If  love  were  nothing  but  pas- 
sion, the  lower  animals  would  be  the  noblest 
lovers  in  the  world.  If  a  grand  passion  is  not  to 
be  controlled  at  any  stage  of  its  career,  or  if  it  is 
to  disregard  its  material  consequences,  then  hu- 
man beings  are  not  better  than  the  beasts.  They 
are  worse,  for  the  latter  have  no  higher  sentiments 
to  restrain  them  and  therefore  are  not  responsible. 

Some  years  ago  the  readers  of  the  Century 
magazine  were  convulsed  by  a  grave  essay  of 
Frank  Stockton  on  the  proper  education  of  par- 
ents, and  paragraphs  of  it  were  quoted  in  society, 
with  numberless  witty  comments  and  with  nu- 
merous compliments  to  the  author  for  his  brill- 
iancy in  turning  things  topsy-turvy.  But  was 
there  so  much  nonsense  in  it  after  all  ?  Whc  is 


FOR   THE   CHILDREN'S  SAKE.  33 

the  more  responsible,  the  child  of  the  parent,  or 
the  parent  of  the  child  ?  Certainly  the  parent  is 
the  only  person  to  blame  for  the  child's  existence. 
Were  any  one  to  conceive  and  bring  before  the 
public  a  business  enterprise  of  as  lasting  dura- 
tion as  the  average  human  life,  he  would  be  held 
to  strict  accountability  by  public  sentiment  and 
by  the  law  for  the  proper  care  of  his  interest,  and 
for  the  effects  which  his  action  might  have  upon 
the  community.  But  there  seems  a  general  im- 
pression that  the  child  is  the  result  of  accident 
rather  than  design,  and  is  to  be  ignored,  and  re- 
sponsibility for  him  is  to  be  got  rid  of,  somewhat 
after  the  manner  of  accidents  in  general.  He 
exists ;  he  must  be  endured ;  indeed,  he  is  some- 
times endurable.  But  when  his  necessities  con- 
flict with  the  desires  and  inclinations  of  his  par- 
ents, it  is  not  adult  selfishness  that  suffers  as  a 
rule,  but  the  rights  and  true  interests  of  the 
child. 

The  public  schools  of  our  large  cities  are  full 
of  children  who  are  sent  there  for  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  getting  them  out  of  the  house.  This 
would  be  a  cruel  thing  to  say  had  it  not  already 
been  said  by  hundreds  of  thousands  of  mothers. 
The  ordinary  restraints  of  school-life  would  be 
unendurable  to  the  majority  of  adults,  but  how 
many  protests  against  these  restraints,  against 
their  duration  and  their  frequent  severity,  are 
heard  from  parents  in  any  station  of  life  ?  A 


34  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

noted  physician  of  New  York,  who  is  a  specialist 
in  diseases  of  the  spinal  column,  insists  that  a 
great  number  of  the  cases  that  have  been  brought 
to  him  for  treatment,  and  which  he  has  found  in 
charity  hospitals  of  one  sort  or  other,  are  the  re- 
sult of  school-room  discipline,  the  result  of  the 
compulsion  of  sitting  upright  for  hours  at  a  time. 
For  what  reason  ?  Oh,  the  child  was  a  nuisance 
at  home  and  was  sent  to  school  that  the  mother 
might  be  rid  of  it  for  a  few  hours  per  day.  That 
some  outside  assistance  in  the  care  of  children  is 
absolutely  necessary  in  the  case  of  some  women 
who  are  compelled  to  help  in  eking  out  the  family 
subsistence  by  leaving  their  homes  to  work  dur- 
ing the  day  is  undeniable,  but  this  is  merely  an- 
other proof  of  the  impropriety  of  hasty  mar- 
riages— marriages  which  were  made  without 
proper  provision  for  their  results. 

Schools  are  not  the  only  places  in  which  city 
children  spend  a  great  deal  of  time  outside  of 
their  homes.  They  can  be  found  by  thousands 
in  the  streets,  in  the  parks,  in  the  gutters,  and 
elsewhere,  absolutely  out  of  home  control,  or  good 
influence  of  any  kind,  too  small  to  deserve  the 
attention  of  the  police,  except  when  seriously  in- 
jured by  some  accident.  They  are  as  uncon- 
trolled in  their  movements  as  any  lot  of  little 
savages  on  the  Western  plains.  One  can  hear 
as  bad  language,  as  many  vile  passions  expressed, 
as  much  malignant  anger  voiced,  by  children  in 


FOR  THK  CHILDREN'S  SAKE.  35 

the  streets  as  by  the  lowest  grades  of  humanity 
that  congregate  in  bar-rooms  and  other  disrep- 
utable places  of  resort. 

But  city  children  are  not  the  only  ones  who 
thus  suffer  for  the  most  flagrant  sin  of  their  par- 
ents. Human  nature  does  not  require  any 
special  surroundings  to  enable  it  to  make  a  fool 
of  itself.  In  all  our  large  villages  many  chil- 
dren can  be  found  who  are  growing  up  with 
as  little  restraint  as  the  animals,  and  with  far 
greater  capabilities  for  harm.  Crime  has  no 
special  abiding  place ;  the  rural  districts  send 
their  full  quota  of  representatives  to  the  State 
prisons  and  the  gallows. 

That  parents  often  regret  this  deplorable  state 
of  affairs  must  be  admitted,  but  regret  often  is 
the  only  sentiment  they  are  able  to  express  with 
any  force.  Not  a  .month  passes  in  which  the 
newspapers  do  not  tell  of  some  despairing  mother 
committing  suicide,  perhaps  first  killing  her 
children  to  save  them  from  the  fate  that  seems 
before  them.  Her  only  possible  hope  for  them  is 
in  heavenly  intervention,  and  of  this  she  does 
not  see  much  prospect,  for  the  experiences  of 
similar  families  are  about  her  to  remind  her  of 
the  almost  inevitable  end  of  the  offspring  of  those 
persons  who  have  brought  children  into  the 
world  without  having  first  made  provision  for 
their  proper  support  and  training. 

Let  nobody  underrate  the  many  touching  in- 


36  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

cidents  of  the  "simple  annals  of  the  poor." 
Some  of  the  most  devoted  parents  and  affection- 
ate children  are  found  in  homes  where  enough 
clothing  is  a  rarity,  and  a  full  meal  is  a  luxury. 
Some  of  the  thousands  of  city  children  who  daily 
go  breakfastless  to  school  are  followed  by  paternal 
anxieties  and  yearnings  as  tender  as  ever  at- 
tended a  child.  But  all  the  love  and  tenderness 
of  which  parental  instinct  is  capable  cannot  give 
strength  to  an  underfed  body,  or  shield  poorly 
clad  limbs  from  the  winter's  blast.  Love  is  the 
strongest  known  stimulant  of  energy  and  exer- 
tion, but  it  cannot  create  to  order  opportunity  for 
bettering  one's  condition ;  if  it  could,  only  the 
unloving  would  be  poor  in  this  world's  goods. 

But  what  pretence  can  the  law  have  to  inter- 
fere in  a  matter  so  entirely  of  personal  right  as 
marriage  and  the  production- of  children?  The 
same  that  the  law  has  to  interfere  with  the  care- 
less use  of  firearms,  or  the  maintenance  of  nui- 
sances. The  public,  by  whom  laws  are  made, 
has  the  right  to  protect  itself  against  any  unnec- 
essary or  injurious  charge  upon  its  pocket  and 
its  peace.  Vicious  children,  untrained  children, 
grow  up  to  become  a  burden  to  the  community. 
A  single  pauper  requires  the  labor  of  another 
man  or  woman,  or  its  equivalent,  for  his  support ; 
a  single  criminal,  even  of  the  common  sort,  often 
costs  the  community  more  than  a  good  road  or  a 
public  building,  and  yields  nothing  in  return. 


FOR  THE  CHILDREN'S  SAKE.  37 

The  weak  are  not  always  vicious ;  some  chil- 
dren who  never  should  have  been  born  reach  adult 
age  without  any  vices,  yet  are  so  incapable,  from 
lack  of  proper  nourishment  and  training,  as  to 
be  more  or  less  a  burden  upon  those  about  them, 
and  these  people  always  multiply  as  rapidly  as 
the  commoner  varieties  of  other  animals.  The 
community  has  a  right  to  protect  itself  by  law 
against  such  inflictions. 

How  ?  By  compelling  a  man,  who  desires  to 
marry,  to  give  proof  that  he  is  prepared  to  prop- 
erly meet  the  responsibilities  of  his  desired  con- 
dition of  life.  It  may  sound  impracticable,  but  if 
a  man  in  marrying  were  compelled  to  give  a  bond 
that  his  probable  children  would  be  cared  for  at 
least  as  well  as  his  neighbor's  swine,  there  would 
not  be  much  diminution  in  the  number  of  desira- 
ble marriages. 

Would  not  any  interference  with  the  freedom 
of  marriage  cause  a  rapid  increase  of  immorality  ? 
No,  unless  you  recognize  but  one  cause  of  im- 
morality. Any  laxity  of  the  relation  of  the  sexes 
is  cause  for  grave  alarm,  but  after  gravely  weigh- 
ing one  sin  in  the  balance  against  the  other,  is 
there  any  greater  crime  against  the  moral  law 
than  that  of  calling  human  beings  into  existence 
without  assurance  of  proper  care  ?  It  used  to  be 
considered  unspeakably  horrible,  as  it  was,  to 
bring  shiploads  of  Africans  to  this  country  and 
deprive  them  of  their  liberty,  but  the  harm  was 


38  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

nowhere  near  so  great  to  the  individual  as  ex- 
istence is  to  the  children  of  millions  of  parents. 
The  slave  could  fight  for  his  freedom,  or  take  his 
own  life  ;  the  unfortunate  child  dare  not  fight  its 
only  owner,  nor  can  it  make  way  with  itself. 

Children  used  to  be  given  to  Moloch.  Moloch 
is  not  dead;  improvident  marriages  keep  him 
robust.  Only  law  can  slay  him. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    DEMON    OF    DIVORCE. 

IN  one  of  the  older  theological  periods,  yet  not 
so  very  old,  there  was  a  theory  that  Satan  was  a 
necessary  part  of  the  godhead.  At  present  there 
seems  to  be  a  theory  like  unto  it.  It  is  that 
divorce  is  a  necessary  feature  of  the  marriage 
system. 

This  notion  is  working  fully  as  much  mischief 
in  morals  and  manners  as  Satan  could  do  if  he 
were  part  of  Omnipotence. 

Divorce  is  popular  with  certain  classes,  be- 
cause married  life — not  marriage — is  sometimes 
a  failure,  but  the  fault  is  not  with  the  institution, 
but  the  individual.  When  Mrs.  Mona  Caird's 
low-toned  essay,  "Is  Marriage  a  Failure?"  was 
being  talked  of  a  few  months  ago,  Rev.  David 
Swing,  of  Chicago,  said  the  question  should 
have  been,  "  Is  Good  Sense  a  Failure  ?  "  Dr. 
Swing  then  struck  at  the  root  of  the  trouble  by 
saying,  "  111  comes  not  because  men  and  women 
are  married,  but  because  they  are  fools."  Yet 
this  is  almost  the  only  class  for  whom  ou* 
divorce  laws  are  made,  and  the  more  liberal  the 

(39) 


40  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

laws,  the  more  foolish  the  fools  can  afford 
to  be. 

Were  divorce  popular  only  for  the  sake  of  get- 
ting rid  of  undesirable  partners  it  would  be  bad 
enough.  Really  it  is  a  thousand  times  worse  be- 
cause its  principal  purpose  is  to  help  husband  or 
wife  to  a  new  partner.  This  cause  never  is  as- 
signed in  a  petition  for  divorce ;  it  doesn't  need 
to  be ;  the  community  has  learned  to  assume  it, 
as  a  matter  of  course. 

The  case  was  well  put  a  short  time  ago  by 
Rabbi  Silverman,  at  the  great  Temple  Emanu- 
Hl,  in  New  York,  when  he  said,  "  The  real  cause 
for  divorce  is  that  there  is  nothing  behind  the 
civil  contract  that  cements  the  marriage  union 
and  so  welds  it  that  nothing  can  tear  it  asunder. 
The  real  cause  for  divorce  is  that  the  marriage 
was  a  failure  because  it  was  not  a  marriage  in 
fact,  but  merely  in  name.  It  was  not  a  union  of 
hearts  for  mutual  happiness,  but  merely  a  part- 
nership for  vain  pleasure  and  profit."  So  long  as 
we  allow  divorce  to  be  easy,  do  we  not  encourage 
such  marriages  ? 

Any  divorce  except  for  the  one  cause  recognized 
by  the  founder  of  Christianity  is  more  injurious 
to  society  at  large  than  any  other  crime,  murder 
not  excepted.  Most  crimes  may  have  a  good 
reflex  influence  by  persuading  men  to  be  more 
watchful  of  their  own  impulses  and  lives,  but  the 
men  or  women  who  obtain  divorces  for  any  but 


THE  DEMON   OF   DIVORCE.  41 

the  gravest  cause  are  sure,  aside  from  the  effect 
upon  themselves,  to  increase  the  discontent  of 
acquaintances  whose  married  life  is  not  all  that 
had  been  hoped  or  wished. 

One  condition  absolutely  necessary  to  a  pure 
and  happy  married  life  is  the  belief  from  the  be- 
ginning that  wedlock  is  to  last  as  long  as  life  it- 
self. Without  the  stimulus  of  this  tremendous 
sense  of  responsibility  no  person  will  unmake 
and  remake  himself  so  as  to  be  the  fit  companion 
of  another.  Even  with  this  impulse  the  effort 
often  fails,  as  all  of  us  know  from  observation  of 
our  own  acquaintances.  To  admit  the  possibility 
of  a  cessation  of  relations  or,  worse  still,  a  change 
of  marital  relations,  is  to  relax  effort  and  to  be- 
come a  selfish  time-server — to  become  a  confidence 
man  instead  of  a  partner. 

The  effect  of  a  divorce  suit  upon  the  plaintiff 
is  something  which  does  not  require  theorizing. 
It  can  be  ascertained  by  personal  observation  in 
almost  any  American  court  which  grants  divorces, 
for  such  cases  are  becoming  more  and  more  fre- 
quent. Whether  the  plaintiff  be  man  or  woman, 
whether  the  cause  be  drunkenness,  or  desertion, 
or  incompatibility  of  temper,  or  insanity,  or  im- 
providence, or  any  of  the  various  causes  for  which 
divorces  are  granted  in  some  States,  the  plaintiff 
or  complainant,  if  closely  watched  from  day  to 
day  during  the  proceedings,  will  be  seen,  even  by 
his  dearest  friends,  to  show  marks  of  mental  de- 


42  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

terioration.  To  tear  two  lives  apart  is  a  serious 
thing  at  best.  Two  friends  bound  only  by  ordi- 
nary ties  have  seldom  separated  without  bad  effects 
being  visible  upon  both.  Where  the  friendship 
is  of  a  nature  that  has  affected  every  portion  of 
the  life  of  each,  as  must  have  been  the  case  even 
with  wedded  couples  who  have  married  at  haste 
and  have  not  even  begun  to  repent  at  leisure, 
the  effect  is  so  marked  that  a  person  seeking 
divorce  almost  always  loses  some  of  his  adherents, 
who  previously  had  been  his  warmest  friends,  be- 
fore the  case  is  decided.  Where  love  was,  hatred 
is  excited  though  it  may  not  even  have  existed  in 
the  first  place.  The  contest  upon  points  of  fact, 
upon  recollections  of  difficulties  and  differences, 
the  depressing  literalness  and  materialism  of 
proof  such  as  is  demanded  in  courts,  the  entire 
materialism,  hearties  sues  s,  callousness,  of  all  the 
proceedings,  as  they  must  be  conducted  under 
forms  of  law,  are  such  as  to  debase  any  nature 
but  the  noblest — but  noble  natures  do  not  seek 
divorce. 

Bad  as  may  be  the  condition  of  the  complain- 
ant and  the  effect  upon  his  own  manner  and  con- 
duct, it  is  not  as  deplorable  as  that  visible  upon 
the  defendant.  To  face  any  direct  charge  in  a 
court  of  law  before  witness,  even  if  these  be  only 
officers  of  the  law  who  are  supposed  to  be  impar- 
tial and  judicial  in  their  opinions  and  actions,  the 
violation  of  privacy  in  regard  to  interests  and  re- 


THE    DEMON   OF    DIVORCE.  43 

lations,  which  above  all  others — except  perhaps 
those  of  a  human  being  toward  his  God — are 
sacred  even  to  the  rudest  minds,  cannot  help 
have  its  effect  upon  any  nature  but  the  strongest. 
The  life  of  the  defendant  in  a  divorce  suit,  unless 
the  complaint  is  utterly  groundless  and  unfair,  is 
from  the  first  likely  to  be  blasted.  The  more  at 
fault  the  more  the  defendant  must  suffer,  not  only 
in  his  own  self-respect,  but  in  the  regard  of  those 
about  him.  The  curious  gaze  of  the  spectators, 
the  intent  look  of  the  jurors,  the  disgust  of  the 
judge  upon  the  bench,  the  flippancy  of  the  wit- 
ness on  the  stand,  all  have  influences  which  would 
make  many  innocent  people  show  signs  of  guilt. 
Upon  any  one  really  at  fault  all  these  influences 
must  be  still  more  depressing. 

It  is  a  common  saying  among  lawyers  that  a 
woman  divorced  from  her  husband,  on  no  matter 
how  slight  cause,  is  pretty  sure  to  go  to  the  bad 
thereafter.  This  is  not  necessarily  an  indication, 
so  the  lawyers  say,  that  the  woman  is  at  fault,  but 
that  the  mental  strain  to  which  she  has  been  sub- 
jected, the  strain  upon  her  self-respect,  is  greater 
than  poor  humanity  is  equal  to.  What  the  sub- 
sequent results  are  upon  her  in  society  we  all 
know.  The  present  ruler  of  England  has  de- 
cided that  no  divorced  woman,  no  matter  in  what 
country  her  divorce  was  obtained,  shall  ever  ap- 
pear at  court.  The  rule  seems  cruel,  but  social 
results  certainly  appear  to  justify  it. 


44  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

If  there  are  children  in  the  case,  as  usually 
there  are — for  somehow  people  without  children 
seldom  appear  in  the  divorce  courts — if  there  are 
children,  the  results  upon  them  are  worse  than 
upon  either  the  complainant  or  defendant.  The 
principal  good  influence  children  are  subject 
to  is  that  of  home.  A  disagreement  between 
father  and  mother  naturally  interrupts  this.  An 
absolute  break  between  the  parents  cannot  fail  to 
immediately  have  the  worst  possible  effects  upon 
the  children.  All  children — except  yours  and 
mine — are  at  times  brutes.  There  are  no  worse 
tale-tellers,  no  worse  back-biters,  no  worse  sayers 
of  cruel  things,  than  little  children.  It  is  not 
that  they  are  unusually  wicked  or  savage  by  na- 
ture, but  insufficient  training,  lack  of  self-restraint, 
lack  of  adult  sense  of  propriety,  causes  the  tongue 
to  say  whatever  is  in  the  heart ;  and  any  adult 
who  is  obliged  to  keep  a  watch  upon  his  own 
tongue  should  be  able  through  sympathy  to  im- 
agine the  savagery  which  will  be  inflicted  upon 
the  children  of  divorced  or  divorcing  people  by 
their  associates.  However  disobedient  or  irrev- 
erent children  may  be  to  their  parents,  the  filial 
instinct  exists  in  all  of  them,  and  a  stab  at  either 
parent  is  felt  most  keenly  by  the  children. 

The  ordinary  consolations  of  a  person  wounded 
through  the  heart  of  another  are  denied  the  child. 
It  has  neither  religion  nor  philosophy,  nor  even 
stoicism,  to  support  it.  It  must  suffer  keenly, 


THE   DEMON   OF   DIVORCE.  45 

and  when  it  looks  for  consolation  or  desires  con- 
solation, where  is  it  to  go,  when  the  two  authors 
of  its  being,  whom  it  has  been  taught  to  regard 
with  equal  respect,  are  at  difference,  ?,nd  each  is 
ready  to  accuse  the  other  and  belittle  the  other  ? 
The  child  of  a  divorced  person  is  a  marked  ob- 
ject of  curiosity  in  the  society  of  children, 
whether  in  neighborhood  parties  or  at  school  or 
Sunday-school,  or  even  in  church.  The  slightest 
quarrel  brings  the  inevitable  taunt  that  "  your 
mother  ran  away  from  your  father,"  or  "  your 
father  is  in  love  with  somebody  else's  mother," 
or  "  you  haven't  any  father  now,"  or  something 
of  the  kind.  Only  a  short  time  ago  the  news- 
papers of  the  United  States  recorded  the  suicide 
of  a  child  of  nine  years,  who  had  sought  death 
to  avoid  the  torment  of  being  twitted  with  the 
separation  of  its  parents. 

Four  lines  of  one  of  Pope's  poems,  which  prob- 
ably are  familiar  to  every  one,  indicate  the  gen- 
eral effect  of  divorced  persons  upon  society : 

"  Vice  is  a  monster  of  such  hideous  mien 
That  to  be  hated  needs  but  to  be  seen  ; 
But  seen  too  oft,  familiar  with  its  face, 
We  first  endure,  then  pity,  then  embrace." 

The  report  that  any  person  has  obtained  a  di- 
vorce for  any  cause  but  the  most  serious  gener- 
ally sends  a  shudder  through  any  American  social 
circle  which  calls  itself  respectable.  Even  husbands 
and  wives  whose  own  marital  experiences  have 


46  OUR  COUNTRY' s  FUTURE. 

not  been  as-  joyous  as  was  expected,  are  shocked 
by  the  legal  disruption  of  a  family — the  spectacle 
of  the  wifeless  husband  whose  wife  really  lives, 
or  the  woman  without  mate  or  protector  whose 
husband  nevertheless  is  not  yet  dead.  But  the 
force  of  the  shock  gradually  weakens  through 
frequent  meetings  with  either  party.  The  faults 
of  the  absent  member  are  recalled,  the  good 
points  of  the  alleged  culprit  are  also  recalled,  and 
little  by  little  excuses  are  made,  until  the  change 
is  regarded  as  coolly  as  the  dissolution  of  a  busi- 
ness copartnership.  Unfortunately,  too,  the  par- 
ties to  a  divorce  are  often  brilliant  members  of 
the  society  in  which  they  have  moved,  for  the  live- 
liest persons  are  generally  the  most  discontented. 
The  unrest  of  some  phases  of  social  life,  the  de- 
sire to  be  less  confined  at  home,  and  to  be  more 
in  general  and  congenial  company,  has  a  great 
deal  to  do  with  bringing  about  divorce,  much 
though  the  guilty  parties  may  deny  it,  and  the 
persons  who  most  frequently  appear  in  the  divorce 
courts  are  those  who  have  been  the  most  popular 
in  their  respective  social  sets. 

This  is  bad  enough,  but  it  is  only  the  begin- 
ning of  the  evil.  What  man  has  done  man — or 
woman — may  do,  is  as  true  of  evil  as  of  good.  If 
Mr.  A  or  Mrs.  B  has  escaped  a  lot  of  apparent 
marital  trouble  by  divorce,  why  should  not  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  C  do  likewise?  They  meant  well — 
this  is  an  admission  which  most  people  sooner  or 


THE   DEMON   OF   DIVORCE.  47 

later  make  in  favor  of  everybody  not  absolutely 
fiendish — they  failed.  Why  should  they  not  try 
again  ?  Then  besides,  they  once  more  have  their 
freedom,  and  the  longing  to  be  free  is  strong 
enough  in  the  animal  portion  of  any  one's  nature 
to  rise  and  trample  down  everything  else,  if  it  is 
at  all  encouraged.  Little  by  little,  yet  very  rap- 
idly, contemplation  of  the  problem  of  divorce 
discourages  efforts  towards  self-improvement  and 
the  perfection  of  marital  life.  It  is  a  benumber 
and  deadener  of  every  honorable  conjugal  im- 
pulse. To  endeavor  to  decide  between  two  evils 
is  an  experience  which  is  demoralizing  to  any  one ; 
to  decide  between  evil  and  good,  when  the  good 
seems  no  more  desirable  than  the  evil,  is  a  great 
deal  worse.  Yet  this  is  the  mental  and  moral 
condition  of  every  one  still  married  who  con- 
templates divorce  as  a  possible  release  from  rela- 
tions which  are  unsatisfactory,  yet  which  might 
be  made  all  that  they  should  be. 

The  effect  of  association  with  divorced  people 
— and  there  i$  no  grade  of  society  which  does 
not  contain  them — is  especially  deplorable  upon 
young  people  of  marriageable  age.  The  veriest 
heathen  who  has  studied  the  influences  of  mar- 
riage will  admit  that  the  rising  generation  needs 
greater  seriousness  in  contemplating  wedlock. 
But  what  can  be  expected  of  any  good-natured, 
well-meaning,  thoughtless,  careless,  pleasure- 
loving,  selfish  young  man  or  girl — and  nearly 


48  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

all  young  people  are  fairly  described  by  these 
adjectives — who,  while  wondering  whether  or  no 
to  propose  to,  or  accept,  some  attractive  person 
of  the  opposite  sex,  is  continually  reminded 
by  certain  facts  and  incidents  that  if  the  bond 
becomes  irksome  it  may  be  broken  at  will  ? 

Some  husbands  and  wives  fight  like  cats  and 
dogs,  but  in  spite  of  it  all,  thank  God,  they  still 
dearly  love  their  children.  What  man  or  woman 
within  the  pale  of  decency  would  give  a  daughter 
in  marriage  with  the  thought  that  she  might  be 
put  away  by  her  husband  at  some  time  for  some 
cause  recognized  by  the  courts  of  Utah,  or  Chicago, 
or  Indiana,  as  sufficient  for  divorce  ?  What  parent 
will  allow  a  son  to  mate  with  a  girl  who  might 
possibly  weary  of  him,  release  herself  through 
legal  measures  and  become  the  wife  of  some 
other  man  ? 

Physicians  and  spiritual  directors  agree  that 
persistent  thought  upon  the  lower  developments 
and  interests  of  the  marriage  relation  are  ex- 
tremely injurious  to  human  character.  What 
other  phases  of  married  life  can  be  much  dwelt 
upon  by  the  mind  of  any  one  who  thinks  at  all 
of  the  possibility  of  divorce  for  any  cause  but 
the  most  serious  ?  The  relationship  thus  re- 
garded is  so  nearly  that  of  the  animals  that  love, 
so  far  as  it  has  existed,  must  be  brought  down  to 
the  level  of  passion,  and  passion  afterward  to 
that  of  lust,  and  lust  in  turn  down  to  appetite, 


THE   DEMON   OF    DIVORCE.  49 

until  beings,  who  once  had  hopes  and  aspirations 
and  longings  which,  in  spite  of  being  unfortified 
by  knowledge  and  principle,  were  noble  in  them- 
selves, place  themselves  practically  on  the  level 
of  the  beasts.  According  to  managers  and  chap- 
lains of  great  prisons  there  is  hope  of  reform 
for  almost  any  criminal  whose  offences  were 
committed  only  through  what  are  called  the 
selfish  instincts,  by  which  is  generally  meant 
destructiveness  and  theft.  But  these  same  ex- 
perts in  crime  are  utterly  hopeless  of  the  refor- 
mation of  any  one  whose  sexual  instincts  have 
become  depraved  or  even  inverted.  Yet  it  is 
difficult  for  any  one  to  go  through  a  divorce 
case,  or  to  think  steadily  upon  the  possibility  of 
divorce,  without  such  a  deterioration  of  sexual 
feeling,  impulse,  and  aspiration.  What  hope 
can  there  be  that  such  persons  will  occupy  a 
respectable  position  in  society  in  the  future  ? 

Can  divorce  be  made  less  popular  and  easy  ? 
Yes.  How?  By  a  constitutional  amendment, 
against  which  no  respectable  citizen  not  a  lawyer 
would  dare  to  vote,  that  the  national  government 
shall  make  a  divorce  law  to  replace  those  of  the 
States.  Tricks  of,  and  concessions  to  divorce 
lawyers  cannot  be  slipped  through  Congress  as 
easily  as  through  a  State  Legislature.  Congress 
is  up  to  a  great  many  dirty  jobs,  but  not  of  that 
kind. 

Congress  can't  make  a  stringent  divorce  law, 


50  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

say  some  lawyers,  but  perhaps  these  gentlemen 
have  their  own  reasons  for  saying  so.  Ex- 
Attorney-General  Russell,  of  New  York,  who 
has  looked  into  the  subject  closely,  recently  said 
such  a  constitutional  amendment  was  possible, 
because  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  States 
already  are  inclined  to  limit  divorce  to  the  gravest 
cause  only. 

In  the  framing  and  adoption  of  such  a  con- 
stitutional amendment,  Congress  would  have 
support  from  a  source  whose  importance  cannot 
be  overestimated.  I  mean  the  Church  ;  not  any 
one  denomination,  but  all — Mormons  excepted. 
Bishop  Foss,  of  the  Methodist  Church,  said  re- 
cently that  his  denomination  could  be  counted 
upon  to  support  such  a  movement ;  Bishop 
Whittaker,  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church, 
spoke  in  similar  strain.  The  Catholic  Church 
recognizes  but  one  cause  of  divorce,  and  the 
Hebrews  are  equally  rigid.  Indeed,  all  creeds 
agree  on  this  subject,  and  when  the  amendment 
comes  up  for  vote  or  ratification  the  influence  of 
such  "  Church  Union  "  cannot  be  combatted — • 
much  less  overcome. 

The  effect  of  a  divorce  law  upon  the  com- 
munity should  be  like  that  of  a  burned  bridge  to 
a  lot  of  soldiers  who  have  just  crossed  it.  With 
no  possibility  of  going  back,  there  is  every  in- 
ducement to  go  ahead  and  make  the  best  of 
whatever  is  before. 


BISHOP  FOSS. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  FARMER'S  TROUBLES. 

THE  average  American  farmer  is  one  of  the 
best  fellows  in  the  world.  He  also  is  one  of  the 
most  unfortunate. 

He  generally  comes  to  his  profession  by  acci- 
dent. He  may  not  have  meant  to  become  a 
farmer,  but  through  death,  or  change  of  family, 
or  some  other  circumstance  entirely  out  of  his 
own  control,  he  comes  in  possession  of  the 
family  estates,  almost  certainly  encumbered  with 
mortgages,  and  must  continue  the  family  busi- 
ness to  secure  a  living  for  himself.  From  the 
first  he  is  doomed  to  loneliness,  which  is  one  of 
the  worst  curses  that  humanity  can  suffer.  He 
cannot  afford  to  employ  help,  for  if  he  had  capi- 
tal he  would  not  be  a  farmer,  and  it  requires 
capital  to  secure  proper  assistance  in  the  conduct 
of  a  farm.  He  must  do  all  of  his  work  himself. 
If  he  cannot  do  it,  it  must  remain  undone.  As 
a  rule  the  farmers  of  the  United  States  are  awake 
long  before  daylight  in  the  morning,  and  their 
work  continues  long  after  dark  in  the  evening. 
The  working  hours  of  the  day,  which  to  the 

(51) 


52  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

ordinary  laborer  are  ten  hours,  and  to  more  fav- 
ored classes  eight  or  seven,  or  even  six,  are  to 
the  farmer  as  a  rule  at  least  fourteen  in  twenty- 
four.  His  work  is  never  done,  any  more  than 
womans. 

As  a  natural  consequence  he  always  is  tired 
out.  Custom  and  the  demand  of  the  markets 
restrict  him  generally  to  a  single  crop.  Whether 
this  be  wheat,  or  corn,  or  oats,  the  seeding  time 
is  comparatively  short.  So  is  harvest  time.  The 
farm  is  larger  than  any  one  man  or  family  can 
possibly  manage,  but  American  demand  being 
at  present  only  for  raw  materials,  he  has  no 
choice.  He  must  plant  the  staple^  from  which 
foreign  countries  are  willing  to  purchase  the  sur- 
plus for  cash.  Otherwise  his  condition  would  be 
worse  than  that  of  a  slave.  It  is  very  hard  for 
any  one  man  to  "break  up"  more  than  one  acre 
of  ground  per  day  with  a  good  team  of  horses. 
What,  therefore,  can  the  single-handed  American 
farmer,  who  owns  a  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of 
ground,  the  customary  "quarter  section,"  expect 
to  do  with  his  immense  estate?  To  properly 
care  for  his  family  he  should  plant  all  of  it ;  but, 
except  in  the  case  of  wheat,  if  he  were  to  plant 
it  all,  one-half  to  three-fourths  of  the  crop  would 
be  wasted  through  lack  of  necessary  cultivation. 
His  horse  is  like  himself,  an  overworked  animal. 
In  any  section  of  the  country  the  farmer  is  re- 
garded safe  who  owns  a  pair  of  good  horses.  But 


THE  FARMER'S  TROUBLES.  53 

animals  working  twenty-six  days  per  month  from 
sunrise  to  sunset  in  the  long  days  of  summer 
cannot  be  kept  up  to  their  work  by  any  amount 
of  feeding  or  care.  Sooner  or  later  one  or  the 
other  of  a  span  of  horses  may  break  down,  and 
then  the  farmer  is  helpless  unless  he  has  money 
in  hand  with  which  to  purchase  a  substitute. 
Not  ten  farmers  thus  fortunate  can  be  found  in 
any  contiguous  hundred. 

For  the  farmer  is  always  poor,  If  it  were 
otherwise  he  would  not  be  a  farmer.  A  very  lit- 
tle experience  on  the  farm  and  less  observation 
of  men  about  him  show  him  that  there  is  more 
money  in  mechanical  or  mercantile  business,  to 
say  nothing  of  other  callings,  than  his  own.  But 
he  is  handicapped  from  the  start,  no  matter  if  he 
begins  young,  and  while  he  still  is  a  bachelor. 
When  he  has  a  family  on  his  hands  he  is  simply 
helpless  so  far  as  the  possibility  of  change  goes. 
The  average  farmer  lives  in  hopes  that  in  time 
his  children,  of  whom  he  generally  has  many, 
will  be  of  some  assistance  to  him.  Frequently 
his  hopes  are  apparently  fulfilled  for  a  short  time. 
But  children  are  not  as  steady  as  grown  people. 
They  roam  about  in  any  time  which  they  have 
to  themselves.  They  reach  the  villages.  They 
learn  of  a  life  which  contains  less  toil  and  more 
comforts  than  that  to  which  they  are  accustomed, 
and  one  by  one  they  begin  to  intimate  a  desire 
for  a  change.  It  is  utterly  out  of  nature  for  the 


54  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

farmer  to  disregard  this  desire.  No  matter  how 
much  he  may  love  their  company  he  knows  in 
his  inmost  heart  that  a  change  from  farm  life  to 
some  sphere  of  activity  which  is  less  exacting 
would  be  a  benefit  to  them  physically  and  men- 
tally, possibly  morally  also.  His  sons  endeavor 
to  become  salesmen  in  stores,  or  to  be  clerks  in 
lawyers'  offices,  or  solicitors  for  one  business  en- 
terprise or  another — anything  to  avoid  the  per- 
sistent and  wearing  drudgery  of  the  farm.  His 
daughters,  in  spite  of  the  boasted  independence 
of  the  farmer,  and  of  his  family,  are  very  easily 
persuaded  to  go  into  any  factory  that  there  may 
be  in  the  vicinity.  It  is  not  that  they  love  home 
less,  but  they  love  companionship  more,  and,  be- 
ing like  human  beings  everywhere  else,  they  are 
keenly  sensitive  to  the  cheering  influence  of 
money — real  cash  received  once  a  week  instead 
of  a  possible  balance  to  the  family's  credit  at  the 
village  store  at  the  end  of  the  year. 

For  the  American  farmer  is  generally  at  the 
mercy  of  the  trader.  The  trader  is  as  good  as 
the  average  merchant,  and  is  practically  a  mer- 
chant in  all  respects.  He  is  generally  the 
keeper  of  a  general  store  at  which  the  farmer 
during  the  year  purchases  everything  which  he 
may  need  for  his  family  on  an  open  account ; 
with  the  understanding  that  when  his  crops  are 
made  they  shall  be  turned  over  to  the  merchant, 
and  a  general  balance  struck.  When  there  is 


THE  FARMER'S  TROUBLES.  55 

a  good  year  the  result  may  be  in  favor  of  the 
farmer,  but  good  years  are  not  the  rule  in  the 
United  States,  even  though  the  country  is,  as  is 
said,  the  garden  of  the  world.  People  who  work 
and  strain  their  energies  to  the  uttermost  require 
more  in  the  way  of  ordinary  creature  comforts 
than  those  whose  lives  are  more  regular,  and, 
though  the  farmer  may  discuss  prices  with  great 
earnestness  with  the  local  merchant,  the  end 
is  practically  the  same :  he  purchases  whatever 
his  family  wants,  so  long  as  he  can  have  it 
"  charged."  He  must  purchase  at  the  price 
stipulated  by  the  merchant,  for  it  is  utterly  im- 
possible for  him  to  look  anywhere  else  for  what 
he  may  need. 

Some  newspapers  have  made  sensational  com- 
plaints of  the  system  of  peonage  to  which  some 
southern  blacks  or  freedmen  have  been  reduced  by 
the  storekeepers  of  plantations  since  slavery  days, 
but  there  is  no  practical  difference  between  their 
condition  and  that  of  the  farmers  the  CQuntry 
over.  "  The  borrower  is  servant  to  the  lender," 
and  the  man  who  has  no  money  with  which  to 
purchase  must  submit  to  the  exactions  of  who- 
ever is  willing  to  extend  credit  to  him.  Farmers' 
notes  are  in  the  market  in  almost  every  county  of 
the  United  States,  and  frequently  those  of  which 
sell  at  the  lowest  prices  are  drawn  by  men  of  whose 
honesty  of  purpose  and  intention  to  pay  no  one 
has  the  slightest  doubt.  The  only  reason  is  that 


56  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

the  farmer's  absolute  necessities  have  been  in 
excess  of  the  cash  value  of  his  farm  products. 

It  is  customary  to  speak  of  the  farmer's  life  as 
being  the  happiest  and  the  safest  occupation  in  the 
world.  Nearly  every  one  knows  of  some  one 
successful  farmer,  and  bases  his  judgment  upon 
his  knowledge  of  that  solitary  individual.  But 
facts  are  stubborn  things,  and  they  have  been 
proved  by  figures  in  the  United  States  in  a 
manner  that  should  make  those  who  are  envious 
of  the  farmer  think  again. 

According  to  the  last  census  report  the  aver- 
age valuation  of  the  farm-lands  of  the  United 
States,  including  buildings,  was  less  than  twenty 
dollars  per  acre.  The  average  value  of  the 
products  was  less  than  eight  dollars  per  acre. 
A  quarter  section  of  land,  which  is  the  ordinary 
size  of  an  American  farm  in  the  States  most 
devoted  to  agriculture,  is  a  hundred  and  sixty 
acres.  The  reader  may  cipher  out  his  own 
inferences  with  very  little  trouble,  remembering 
that  groceries,  medicines,  clothing,  and  every- 
thing else  not  produced  by  the  farm  costs  quite 
as  much  in  the  rural  districts  as  in  the  large 
cities,  and  generally  a  great  deal  more. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  gold  produced  in  the 
mining  districts  of  the  United  States  has  cost 
far  more  in  labor  and  physical  loss  than  its  value 
amounted  to.  The  cost  of  the  farm-land  in  the 
United  States  leaves  the  apparent  waste  on  gold 


THE  FARMER'S  TROUBLES.  57 

in  absolute  insignificance.  There  are  tnousands 
of  American  farms  to-day,  probably  hundreds  of 
thousands,  of  which  the  land  under  the  hammer 
would  not  bring  as  much  money  as  the  fences  of 
those  same  farms  have  cost.  The  expense  of 
clearing  wooded  land  to  fit  it  for  agriculture  has 
been  far  greater  in  almost  every  section  of  the 
country  than  the  value  of  the  land  at  the 
highest  price  prevailing  would  repay.  The 
work  of  fencing  and  clearing  was  done  by  other 
generations,  who  got  less  from  their  farms  than 
the  present  occupants  are  receiving. 

One  of  the  favorite  arguments  of  men  who 
urge  younger  men  to  go  West  and  take  a  farm 
and  grow  up  with  the  country  is,  that  they  will 
never  lack  for  plenty  to  eat.  This  statement  is 
entirely  true.  A  man  can  always  have  plenty 
of  food  from  his  own  estate  if  he  cultivates  it  at 
all,  or  has  any  live  stock.  But  one  accompany- 
ing fact  is,  and  this  fact  should  be  carefully  con- 
sidered— that  frequently  he  has  no  place  at  which 
to  market  at  a  profit  what  he  produces.  He  is 
so  far  from  any  market  that  what  he  does  not 
eat  he  frequently  is  obliged  to  waste.  Corn  in 
the  ear  has  been  used  during  many  winters  for 
fuel  in  portions  of  the  West,  not  because  there 
was  no  wood  to  be  had,  but  because  there  was  no 
convenient  place  at  which  to  market  the  corn, 
even  at  the  bare  expense  of  shelling  and  hauling 
to  market,  to  say  nothing  of  the  previous  cost  of 


58  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

planting,  cultivation,  and  harvesting.  Where  a 
farmer  is  near  a  market,  as  in  some  eastern 
States,  his  table  is  no  better  set  than  that  of  the 
cheapest-paid  mechanic  in  the  city.  He  may 
have  eighty  acres  of  wheat,  but  if  his  family 
wishes  to  eat  a  cabbage  they  are  obliged  to  go  to 
some  village  market  and  purchase  it ;  the  farmer 
himself  has  not  had  time  to  plant  and  cultivate 
it.  Summer  boarders  find  fewer  vegetables  in 
the  country  than  in  the  city. 

The  natural  question  occurs,  why  does  not 
the  farmer  change  his  business  as  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  mechanics  and  other  men  are  doing 
every  year  ?  The  answer  is  that  it  is  impossible 
for  him  to  do  so.  He  cannot  leave  his  farm 
without  ruin  to  his  family,  for  to  neglect  to  plant 
and  cultivate  is  to  lose  the  credit  upon  which  in 
ninety-nine  cases  in  a  hundred  he  must  subsist. 
He  cannot  sell  his  farm  at  auction  under  the 
hammer  as  if  it  were  a  city  house  or  a  village 
residence,  for  purchasers  of  farms  are  the  rarest 
of  all  purchasers  of  real-estate  in  the  United 
States.  This  is  not  in  accordance  with  European 
precedent  or  supposition,  but  it  has  been  demon- 
strated in  every  State,  and  almost  every  county 
of  the  Union. 

Does  all  this  mean  that  farming  will  not  pay  ? 
No.  Farming  will  pay  if  backed  by  capital  as 
well  as  practical  knowledge.  But  it  is  almost 
impossible  that  the  American  farmer  of  the 


THE  FARMER'S  TROUBLES.  59 

present  generation  shall  have  any  capital  from 
any  source  whatever.  Farming,  when  conducted 
intelligently,  can  be  made  profitable  in  any 
portion  of  the  United  States  by  a  man  with 
sufficient  money  in  his  pocket.  Hiram  Sibley, 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  whom  the 
United  States  ever  produced,  was,  at  the  time  of 
his  death,  in  1888,  managing  four  hundred  dif- 
ferent farms  in  nine  different  States  of  the 
Union,  conducting  all  through  correspondence, 
and  he  made  it  his  boast,  in  which  undoubtedly 
he  was  honest,  that  from  each  of  these  farms  he 
secured  a  profit.  But  Sibley  was  a  millionaire 
twenty  times  over,  probably  forty  times.  What- 
ever his  farms  needed  they  could  have  at  once, 
and  at  the  lowest  market  price,  for  he  always 
had  cash  to  pay  for  whatever  he  wanted.  Never- 
theless, this  successful  farmer,  this  millionaire, 
this  thorough-going  man  of  business,  said,  to  the 
day  of  his  death,  that  there  was  no  more  pitiable 
character  in  the  United  States  than  the  farmer. 

Nobody  knows  more  about  any  one  special 
business  than  the  man  who  does  not  have  to 
attend  to  its  details,  so  there  is  a  widespread 
opinion  and  assertion  that  the  trouble  with  the 
farmer  is  that  he  is  improvident.  Men  call  at- 
tention to  the  expenses,  apparently  unnecessary, 
which  he  is  continually  making,  particularly  in 
the  direction  of  comforts  and  even  luxuries  for 
his  family.  But  what  can  the  farmer  do? 


60  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

Everywhere  east  of  the  Mississippi  river  he  is 
near  a  village.  His  children  go  to  school  with 
those  of  the  village.  They  learn  of  comforts 
and  luxuries  to  which  they  are  not  accustomed 
at  home.  They  talk  about  them.  They  think 
about  them.  They  long  for  them.  The  farmer 
himself  is  a  human  being.  Any  one  who  mis- 
takes him  for  a  boor  makes  a  terrible  blunder. 
Whenever  it  is  in  his  power  to  make  his  home 
more  comfortable  he  does  so  with  a  degree  of 
earnestness  that  is  almost  terrible.  He  is 
anxious  to  save  himself  from  the  possible  im- 
putation, by  his  own  children,  of  being  a  less 
careful  provider  than  any  one  with  whom  his 
family  are  on  intimate  terms. 

When  there  comes  a  year  in  which  crops 
promise  well,  the  farmer  will  buy  anything  that 
his  family  may  want,  if  he  can  pay  by  giving 
his  note  of  hand,  to  fall  due  after  the  yield  of 
the  year  is  sold.  Makers  of  sewing-machines, 
organs,  pianos,  venders  of  furniture  and  bric-a- 
brac,  agents  of  subscription-books,  go  first  and 
most  steadily  to  the  farmers  with  their  wares. 
The  farmer  will  give  his  note,  the  vender  will 
find  some  one  who  will  discount  it,  and  in  the 
end  it  must  be  paid  or  compromised.  If  the 
crops  go  well  everything  is  paid — perhaps.  If 
not,  the  farmer  is  deeper  than  ever  in  the  morass 
of  debt.  He  has  the  consolation,  apparently 
slight,  though  it  is  great  to  him,  that  his  family 


THE  FARMER'S  TROUBLES.  61 

has  enjoyed  some  of  the  benefits  of  villagers 
whom  they  have  envied,  and  that  some  day, 
somehow,  he  will  get  even  with  the  world  for  it. 
Perhaps  this  apparent  extravagance  of  his  will 
keep  his  family  together  longer  than  the  family 
of  his  neighbor  A  or  B  or  C,  from  which  the 
boys  have  drifted  into  village  stores  and  shops, 
and  the  girls  into  domestic  service  in  the  town, 
or  perhaps  into  factories,  all  to  avoid  the  hard 
work,  but  still  more,  the  loneliness  and  barren- 
ness of  the  average  farmer's  home. 

How  helpless  and  unpromising  is  the  present 
condition  of  the  American  farmer  can  best  be 
imagined  by  a  glance  at  the  farming  interest  as 
it  exists  at  present  in  the  New  England  States. 
Here,  within  the  lifetime  of  the  present  genera- 
tion, mills  have  dotted  the  sides  of  every  river 
and  brook  that  has  sufficient  power  to  turn  a 
wheel.  Thousands  of  people  are  gathered 
closely  together  every  few  miles  along  these 
water-courses,  working  in  mills  and  factories,  and 
absolutely  dependant  upon  the  surrounding 
country  for  their  food  supplies.  Yet  in  no  other 
section  of  the  country  are  there  so  many  aban- 
doned farms.  A  short  time  ago  the  twelve  best 
farms  in  the  State  of  Vermont  were  practically 
abandoned  because  it  seemed  impossible  to  their 
owners  to  work  them  withoiit  a  loss,  and  a  bill 
was  introduced  in  the  Legislature  to  exempt  these 
particular  farms — which,  again  I  repeat,  were  the 


62  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

best  in  the  State — to  exempt  these  farms  from 
taxation  so  that  some  one  might  be  persuaded 
to  work  them.  It  is  not  that  the  farmers  have 
no  market  for  what  they  produce,  but  that  the 
finer  farm  products,  or  what  in  the  larger  cities 
are  called  the  products  of  market-gardening,  are 
of  a  nature  so  perishable  that  the  profitable 
promise  of  a  good  soil  may  be  speedily  lost  by 
the  loss  of  the  field  itself  after  gathering. 

Bven  near  the  large  city  of  New  York,  where 
some  men  pay  the  interest  on  land  worth  five 
thousand  dollars  per  acre  for  the  sake  of  tilling 
it  for  market-gardening  purposes,  there  are 
thousands  of  acres  of  ground  utterly  neglected 
year  after  year,  as  they  have  been  for  the  past 
twenty  years.  It  is  possible  that  some  of  these 
might  have  been  tilled  to  profit,  but,  with  a  steady 
demand  for  labor  in  the  cities  for  which  sure  and 
frequent  pay  is  guaranteed,  the  farmer's  sons 
and  daughters  left  their  home,  and  the  father 
was  left  without  assistance  and  without  means  to 
hire  help.  Even  had  he  hired  it,  the  results 
would  have  been  the  same — the  balance  on  the 
wrong  side  at  the  end  of  the  year. 

Frequently  the  suggestion  is  made  that  the 
farmers  hould  receive  a  bounty  from  the  Govern- 
ment or  from  his  State  on  special  products,  and 
this  system,  so  far  as  individual  States  are  con- 
cerned, is  in  partial  operation.  The  farmer  him- 
self is  distinctly  of  the  opinion  that,  while  legis- 


THE  FARMER'S  TROUBLES.  63 

lation  provides  special  relief  and  assistance  for 
nearly  every  other  class  in  the  industrial  world, 
he  should  not  be  neglected.  When  he  begins  to 
demand  such  assistance,  as  he  is  now  quite  will- 
ing to  do,  there  will  be  before  the  public  a  ques- 
tion of  greater  magnitude  than  any  labor  prob- 
lem which  has  yet  appeared.  Special  legislation 
has  an  unpopular  sound,  but  the  fact  exists,  as 
any  follower  of  Congressional  and  legislative  pro- 
ceedings well  knows. 

The  granger  movement  in  the  West  was  the 
initial  of  this  attempt  at  improving  the  farmer's 
condition.  Like  other  great  popular  movements, 
it  began  with  a  sudden  impulse,  in  which  there 
was  more  earnestness  than  intelligence  ;  }^et  any 
observer  of  the  necessities  of  the  farmer  and  the 
management  of  the  railways  knows  that  there 
was  a  substantial  basis  of  sense  to  it.  For  a 
great  many  years  the  railways  took  the  lion's 
share  of  the  farm's  yield,  on  the  plea  that  it  cost 
that  proportion  of  the  value  of  the  crop  to  move 
corn  or  wheat  or  pork  to  market.  Why  it  took 
so  large  an  amount  is  well  known  in  the  case  of 
many  roads,  which  by  watering  their  stock  or 
subsidizing  construction  companies  were  capital- 
ized at  several  times  their  value.  In  the  future 
efforts  of  the  farmer  to  secure  recognition  and 
proper  compensation  for  his  service,  the  factors 
of  the  problem  may  not  be  so  distinct,  but,  un- 
less something  is  done  in  the  direction  of  legisla- 


64  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

tive  assistance,  the  farms  of  the  West  must  in 
time  be  deserted  as  largely  as  those  of  the  east- 
ern States,  in  which  there  are  now  thousands  of 
farms  in  which  not  only  the  land,  but  the  build- 
ings, are  without  occupants,  and  are  at  the  service 
of  anyone  who  may  be  fool  enough  to  occupy 
them — that  is  the  farmer's  way  of  putting  it. 

It  has  frequently  been  suggested  that  the 
farmer  could  save  largely  from  the  financial 
results  of  his  year's  work  by  participating  in  co- 
operative movements  for  the  supply  of  stores  and 
other  necessities  of  his  family  on  his  farm.  It 
may  not  be  known  to  theorists  that  this  sugges- 
tion has  nothing  new  in  it.  It  occurred  to  the 
farmer  in  hundreds  of  counties,  and  he  endeav- 
ored to  act  upon  it.  But  what  can  a  man  do  in 
the  way  of  purchasing  from  first  hands,  who  has 
no  capital  with  which  to  purchase?  Farmers' 
stores  and  farmers'  clubs  were  tried,  to  a  large 
extent,  forty  or  fifty  years  ago,  all  over  the  States 
which  now  are  the  most  populous  section  of  the 
Mississippi  valley.  Sometimes  the  effort  re- 
sulted in  the  establishment  of  depots  of  supply 
for  farmers  alone,  but  a  single  year  of  bad  crops, 
whether  caused  by  drought  or  insect  pests  or  over- 
flows, or  any  other  cause  entirely  outside  of  the  con- 
trol of  the  farmer,  would  cause  the  ruin  of  any 
establishment  which  chanced  to  be  started  with 
capital  sufficient  only  for  a  little  while. 

As  before  stated,  and  as  must  be  kept  in  mind 


THE  FARMER'S  TROUBLES.  65 

in  each  and  in  all  considerations  of  the  farmer's 
lot  and  the  farmer's  future,  the  agriculturist  of 
the  United  States  is  almost  always  a  man  with- 
out capital,  and  a  man  whose  constant  struggle 
is  to  be  equal  by  his  output  to  his  daily  demands. 
When  a  farmer's  store  failed,  the  deficiency  had 
to  be  made  up  in  cash,  even  if  some  of  the  back- 
ers had  to  sell  their  estates.  Bankruptcy  pro- 
ceedings or  "arrangements  "  with  creditors  were 
not  easy.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  it 
would  be  far  easier,  in  most  parts  of  the  United 
States,  to  sell  a  white  elephant  or  a  million-dollar 
diamond  than  to  turn  a  farm  into  cash  at  short 
notice,  although  the  seller  were  willing  to  sub- 
mit to  a  ruinous  sacrifice.  There  are  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  farmers  in  the  better  and  more  fully 
settled  States,  who  for  years  have  had  their  estates 
in  the  market,  and  been  walling  and  anxious  to 
sell  at  a  loss,  yet  have  been  utterly  unable  to  find 
a  purchaser,  except  among  men  of  their  own 
class,  who  had  no  money  to  pay  in  advance  and 
who  could  simply  offer  a  mortgage  as  security 
for  future  payment,  and  from  which  mortgage,  in 
case  of  default  on  interest  or  principal,  nothing 
could  be  obtained  for  a  y?ar  or  more,  and  even 
then  only  after  proceedings  most  uncomfortable 
to  institute  and  likely  only  to  result  in  a  terrible 
sacrifice  to  the  creditor.  The  number  of  men 
who  are  "  land  poor  "  in  the  agricultural  districts 
of  the  United  States  is  almost  beyond  computa- 


66  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

tion.  The  man  who  has  a  farm  of  two  or  three 
hundred  acres,  nominally  valued  at  a  hundred 
dollars  per  acre,  is  supposed  to  be  worth  twenty 
or  thirty  thousand  dollars  and  quite  good  for  all 
his  debts.  The  truth  is  that  often  he  suffers 
more  for  lack  of  some  small  necessity  for  which 
cash  must  be  paid  than  the  city  mechanic  or  la- 
borer, who  receives  only  a  few  dollars  per  week 
for  his  services. 

Why  doesn't  he  borrow  from  a  bank,  giving  a 
mortgage  for  security  ?  Bless  you,  no  bank  that 
would  lend  to  farmers,  on  the  risks  and  time  usu- 
ally necessary,  could  continue  in  business. 

The  suggestion  may  be  startling,  but  still  it  is 
practical,  that  it  may  yet  be  necessary,  for  the 
proper  feeding  of  the  community,  that  farming, 
like  the  policing  of  cities  and  the  maintenance 
of  an  army  and  the  conduct  of  the  postal  de- 
partment, shall  be  done  at  the  expense  of  the 
government.  This  seems  to  have  been  the  method 
in  Egypt  in  the  days  of  Pharaoh  and  of  Joseph, 
his  steward,  and  America  may  yet  have  to  revert 
to  it.  The  Government  will  have  either  to  man- 
age the  farms  or  assist  the  farmers ;  the  people 
may  choose  which  shall  be  done. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    RUM   POWER. 

MOST  people  have  heard  of  the  man  who  in  a 
difficulty  with  a  vicious  bull  finally  got  the 
animal  by  the  tail.  He  could  not  hurt  the 
brute,  yet  he  did  not  dare  to  let  go,  so  he  was 
slung  about  most  unmercifully,  and  at  last  ac- 
counts he  was  still  being  slung.  The  bull  was 
in  the  wrong,  the  man  in  the  right ;  still  he 
had  the  animal  only  by  the  tail :  instead  of 
quieting  or  frightening  the  brute,  he  merely 
made  him  angry  and  was  severely  punished  for 
his  well-meant  efforts. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  in  their  con- 
test with  the  rum  power  are  in  the  position  of 
the  man  with  the  bull.  The  rum  power  is  in 
the  wrong ;  the  people  are  in  the  right,  yet  they 
have  the  monster  only  by  the  tail,  so  they  only 
worry  him  and  make  misery  for  themselves. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  recount  the  harm  done 
individuals  and  families  by  the  liquor  traffic. 
Almost  every  charge  that  the  most  rabid  prohi- 
bitionist makes  can  be  substantiated  by  a  thou- 
sand men  who  sell  liquor,  aside  from  what  total 

abstainers  may  know  or  believe  or  imagine. 

(67) 


68  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

Bishop  Warren,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  is  not  an  excitable  man,  but  he  does  not 
overstate  the  truth  at  all  when  he  says  :  "  Innu- 
merable are  the  crimes  of  dolorous  and  accursed 
ages,  and  a  fruitful  source  of  them  all  is  in- 
temperance. It  robs  the  body  of  its  strength, 
the  senses  of  their  delicacy,  the  mind  of  its 
acuteness,  the  spirit  of  its  life.  It  fires  every 
passion,  makes  every  base  appetite  the  master 
of  mind  and  will,  leaves  man  an  utter  wreck. 
Of  its  work  there  are  frightful  statistics  of  rob- 
beries, arsons,  murders,  insanities,  and  curses  to 
the  third  and  fourth  generations ;  .but  there  are 
no  statistics  that  can  measure  the  heartbreaks 
of  wives,  hungers  of  children,  disappointments 
of  fond  parents,  and  physical  inheritance  of  de- 
terioration and  unconquerable  appetite.  It  is 
the  one  great,  stark,  crying  curse  of  our  race 
and  age.  It  is  the  personal  foe  of  every  parent, 
Sunday-school  teacher,  and  preacher  of  right- 
eousness." 

Miss  Frances  Willard,  who  is  doing  more  suc- 
cessful temperance  work  than  any  man  who  is  in 
the  same  field  at  present,  states  the  case  as  ear- 
nestly as  Bishop  Warren,  and  with  the  extra  force 
which  figures  always  give — figures  which  no  one 
contradicts  because  no  one  can.  She  says:  "No 
man  of  the  smallest  intelligence  can  be  ignorant 
of  the  fact  that  the  saloon  is  to-day  the  chief 
destructive  force  in  society ;  that  the  cumulative 


FRANCES  E.  WiLLARD. 


THE  RUM   POWER.  69 

testimony  of  judge,  jury,  and  executive  officers 
of  the  law  declares  that  fifty  per  cent,  of  the 
idiocy  and  lunacy,  eighty  per  cent,  of  the  crimes, 
and  ninety  per  cent  of  the  pauperism  come  from 
strong  drink ;  that  the  saloon  holds  the  balance 
of  power  in  almost  every  city  of  ten  thousand 
inhabitants  ;  that  it  is  the  curse  of  workingmen 
and  the  sworn  foe  of  home." 

It  isn't  necessary,  either,  to  call  attention  to 
the  harm  done  free  institutions  at  election  times 
by  the  influence  of  rum.  The  late  "  Petroleum  " 
Nasby,  whom  all  of  us  knew  for  a  lovable  fellow 
and  an  able  editor,  once  consumed  a  gallon  of 
whiskey  a  day  on  the  average.  When  he 
stopped  drinking  he  wrote  a  series  of  temperance 
editorials,  concluding  with  the  words  "  Paralyze 
the  rum  power."  "  Pete  "  had  been  in  politics 
himself:  he  knew  what  the  "power "of  rum 
was,  and  how  it  was  used. 

The  demoralizing  effect  of  plenty  of  liquor  is 
so  well  known  that  the  first  duty  of  a  local  cam- 
paign manager,  no  matter  of  which  party,  is  to 
make  proper  arrangements  with  rum-shops  for 
supplying  free  drinks  for  the  purpose  of  changing 
voters'  views.  The  man  who  has  opinions,  no 
matter  what  they  may  be,  is  quite  likely  to 
modify  them  if  asked  when  he  is  under  the  in- 
fluence of  a  few  drinks;  and  if  his  liquid  conso- 
lation is  to  be  supplied  at  the  expense  of  some 
other  man,  the  opinions  of  the  two  are  likely  to 


70  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

be  in  entire  accord  before  the  transaction  is  con- 
cluded. Votes  are  easier  purchased  with  rum 
than  with  money,  no  matter  how  large  the  sum 
that  may  be  at  the  disposal  of  any  political  boss 
or  ward  committee.  The  public  heard,  a  few 
years  ago,  to  its  horror,  that  an  important  State 
had  been  carried  for  the  victorious  party  by  a 
general  distribution  of  new  two-dollar  bills. 
The  truth  is,  as  any  one  can  learn  by  visiting 
the  districts  which  then  were  close  in  the  .State 
alluded  to,  that  a  great  deal  more  money  than 
the  entire  number  of  two-dollar  bills  amounted 
to  had  previously  been  expended  in  rum-shops 
to  which  men  who  were  willing  to  listen  to  what 
was  called  "  a  fair  presentation  of  conflicting 
views"  could  be  persuaded  to  come.  Liquor  is 
cheaper  in  the  western  States  than  in  large 
cities.  It  is  worse,  too.  A  little  of  it  goes  a 
long  way,  and  the  man  who  will  spend  an  even- 
ing in  a  rum-shop  in  a  rural  locality,  is  equal  to 
any  enormity,  compared  with  which  an  apparent 
change  of  sentiment  on  political  subjects  is  a 
mere  trifle.  As  Channing  used  to  say,  "  Rum  out- 
wits alike  the  teacher,  the  man  of  business,  the 
patriot,  and  the  legislator." 

Stepping  aside  from  sentiment,  and  coming 
down  to  practical  facts,  Rev.  Theodore  Cuyler 
says  that  the  liquor  question  "  enters  more  im- 
mediately into  the  enrichment  or  the  impoverish- 
ment of  the  national  resources  than  any  question 


THE   RUM   POWER.  71 

,  of  tariff  or  currency.  More  money  is  touched 
by  the  drink  traffic  and  the  effects  of  the  traffic 
than  by  any  other  trade  known  among  men. 
The  tax  upon  national  resources  levied  by  the 
bottle  is  far  heavier  than  the  combined  taxes  for 
every  object  of  public  well-being." 

Statistics  of  drink  are  undoubtedly  more 
appalling  than  those  of  the  most  bloody  and 
senseless  war  that  the  world  ever  knew.  Some 
that  are  published  are  entirely  untrustworthy ;  a 
head  for  reform  does  not  always  mean  a  head 
for  figures;  so  figures  are  often  made  to  lie,  like 
tombstones.  But  the  truth  is  bad  enough.  It  is 
plain  to  any  man  who  knows  anything  about 
current  values  that  the  price  of  a  glass  of  poor 
beer  will  buy  a  pound  of  good  bread,  and  the 
price  of  a  glass  of  best  whiskey  will  buy  a 
pound  of  the  best  meat.  Yet  a  great  deal  more 
money  goes  for  beer  and  whiskey  than  for  bread 
and  meat. 

Why? 

Depraved  appetite,  answers  the  professional 
moralist.  This  is  the  veriest  nonsense,  although 
it  is  the  commonest  of  the  reasons  that  are  given 
for  inordinate  indulgence  in  stimulants.  An  ap- 
petite, properly  speaking,  must  be  of  a  fixed  na- 
ture. There  is  no  drunkard  alive  who  has  a  fixed 
appetite  for  liquor.  The  depraved  appetite,  so- 
called,  is  an  occasional  manifestation  of  the  influ- 
ence of  long  indulgence  in  alcoholic  stimulants, 


72  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

but  it  is  no  more  possible  to  prolong  it  and  make 
it  a  fixed  condition  of  a  man's  life  than  it  is  for 
a  human  being  to  make  a  voyage  to  the  moon. 

The  first  purpose  of  drink,  to  any  one  who 
is  beginning  to  use  liquor,  is  to  "  feel  good,"  and 
there  is  no  denying  that  this  is  a  generaj.  longing 
in  every  grade  of  humanity,  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest.  Most  human  beings  of  the  lower  order 
are  full  of  physical  defects,  all  the  way  from 
those  of  the  muscles  and  joints  to  those  of  the 
vital  organs  and  nerves.  If  you  ask  the  south- 
ern field-hand  how  he  feels,  you  may  safely  bet 
that  he  will  answer,  "  pooty  porely,"  and  to  get  re- 
lief from  his  aches  and  pains  he  resorts  to  liquor, 
whenever  he  can  get  it.  The  Indian  is  another 
specimen  of  the  man  who  wants  to ' '  feel  good. ' '  He 
is  supposed  to  be  physically  a  splendid  child  of 
nature,  but  he  seldom  is  without  some  serious 
functional  disorder  or  inherited  curse  of  the  flesh 
which  makes  him  the  willing  slave  of  any  stimu- 
lant he  can  get.  A  great  host  of  unfortu- 
nates who  have  come  to  the  United  States  from 
other  lands  are  practically  in  the  same  condition; 
starved,  abused,  and  underfed  for  generations 
and  centuries,  a  glass  of  rum  is  to  them  like  the 
touch  of  an  angel,  and  a  jugful  is  the  equiva- 
lent of  a  heavenly  host.  There  is  no  sense  in 
talking  about  "  depraved  appetites "  when  you 
contemplate  these  people,  from  whom  come  the 
mass  of  the  rumseller's  customers. 


THE   RUM   POWER.  73 

The  second  strong  impulse  to  drink  is  like  unto 
the  first ;  it  is  to  "  brace  up."  Human  nature  is 
either  a  dreadfully  weak  machine,  or  one  which 
the  majority  persist  in  overworking.  Men's  en- 
ergies, spurred  by  their  necessities,  too  often  out- 
run their  strength ;  then  stimulation  will  be  re- 
sorted to  if  it  is  at  hand.  It  is  quite  true  to  say 
there  is  more  strength,  and  stimulus  too,  in  a 
loaf  of  bread  or  pound  of  meat  than  in  a  glass 
of  liquor;  but  the  food  works  slowly;  the  liquor 
works  quickly.  There  are  drinkers  almost  in- 
numerable among  the  better  classes,  who  use 
liquor  medicinally,  as  literally  as  other  men  use 
quinine.  Their  liquor  habit  never  is  an  indul- 
gence ;  they  would  as  lieve  take  some  other  stimu- 
lant were  it  equally  convenient  and  effective,  but 
they  do  not  know  of  any ;  neither  do  their  doc- 
tors. 

When  men  feel  the  need  of  stimulation,  yet 
dread  the  use  of  alcohol,  they  will  search  for  help 
somewhere  else.  With  the  nominal  decay  of  the 
rum  influence  in  the  United  States  some  years 
ago,  began  the  enormous  sale  of  bitters,  ano- 
dynes, narcotics,  stimulants,  nerve  foods,  brain 
foods,  and  other  nostrums  of  similar  purpose,  witli 
which  the  advertising  columns  of  a  great  many 
newspapers,  including  most  of  the  religious  week- 
lies, were  filled,  as  some  are  at  the  present  time. 
In  the  city  of  New  York,  where  there  is  one  rum 
shop  to  every  thirty  families,  it  is  not  a  common 


74  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

experience  to  smell  opium  or  chloral  in  the  breath 
of  the  man  next  you  in  church  or  street-car  or 
business  resort.  But  in  the  State  of  Maine, 
which  has  had  more  experience  with  close  pro- 
hibition than  all  the  other  States  of  the  Union 
combined,  it  is  hard  to  go  into  any  community 
of  men  without  being  made  cognizant  of  the  fact 
that  resort  to  these  stimulants  is  quite  common 
in  that  virtuous  State.  I  do  not  say  this  in  con- 
tempt of  Maine's  effort  to  get  rid  of  liquor.  The 
prohibition  movement  in  Maine  has  done  incal- 
culable good  in  some  directions.  There  is  no  other 
State  in  the  Union  in  which  young  men  have 
never  been  invited  into  bar-rooms,  and  do  not 
know  what  public  opportunity  for  drinking  is. 

Do  I  mean  to  say  that  alcoholic  stimulants  are 
absolute  necessities  of  life  ?  No  ;  I  do  not,  but— 
don't  underrate  the  meaning  of  that  little  word — 
but  the  majority  of  our  voters  do,  and  majorities 
rule  in  this  country.  There  is  altogether  too 
much  indulgence  and  drunkenness — too  much 
yielding  to  the  desire  to  "  feel  good."  The  use 
of  alcohol  in  large  quantities  has  a  bad  effect 
upon  the  character  and  conduct  of  anyone ;  the 
temperance  men  will  give  you  all  the  dreadful 
statistics  you  like  as  to  the  part  rum  plays  in 
filling  our  jails,  poorhouses  and  insane  asylums, 
and  God  himself  would  shudder  to  tell  us  how 
many  homes  it  ruins — how  many  widows  and 
orphans  it  makes.  On  a  division  of  the  subject 


THE  RUM   POWER.  75 

which  is  out  of  the  province  of  statisticians, 
physicians  will  admit  that  more  sexual  im- 
morality comes  from  rum  than  all  other  causes 
combined.  There  is  no  fear  of  overstating  the 
aggregate  bad  effects  of  over-indulgence  in  liquor 
— it  is  beyond  the  power  of  words  or  figures  to 
overstate  it. 

Having  admitted  that  the  curse  of  rum  in  the 
United  States  is  quite  as  great  as  any  moralist 
or  pr6hibitionist  has  ever  asserted,  it  follows  that 
some  remedy  is  necessary,  and  the  question 
naturally  occurs,  What  shall  it  be  ? 

The  almost  unanimous  reply  will  be,  Control 
the  demon  by  law.  The  majority  of  law-abiding 
citizens  are  quite  willing  to  admit  that  this 
should  be  done,  but  the  question  arises  and  be- 
comes more  urgent  year  by  year,  What  shall  the 
law  be?  Shall  it  be  in  the  direction  of  prohi- 
bition ?  The  experience  of  several  States,  Maine 
no  less  than  others,  is  overwhelmingly  to  the 
effect  that  prohibition  does  not  prohibit.  Per- 
haps not  as  much  liquor  is  consumed  in  Maine 
as  if  there  were  open  bars  in  every  town.  But 
anyone  who  is  fond  of  a  glass  knows  by  experi- 
ence that  it  is  quite  as  easy  to  gratify  his  tastes 
in  the  State  of  Maine  as  it  is  in  the  city  of  New 
York.  Worse  still,  the  stranger  going  from 
another  State  to  Maine,  if  he  has  any  acquaint- 
ances at  all  in  the  prohibition  State,  is  so  im- 
portuned by  hospitable  souls,  who  wish  to  make 


76  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

him  feel  entirely  at  home,  and  as  comfortable  as 
he  might  be  if  he  were  in  his  native  city  or 
village,  and  has  set  before  him  liquors  in  such 
variety,  that  he  generally  goes  to  bed  with  a 
heavier  head  and  awakes  in  the  morning  with  a 
harder  headache  than  if  he  had  been  in  the 
worst  rum-cursed  portion  of  the  country. 

Have  I  heard  the  arguments  in  favor  of  pro- 
hibition ?  Well,  can  anyone  help  having  heard 
them  ?  No  project  ever  placed  before  the  public 
has  been  more  earnestly  and  persistently  advo- 
cated. But  where  is  the  sense  of  demanding 
a  law  against  which  you  know  the  majority  of 
the  people  will  be  arrayed  ?  Suppose  during 
momentary  enthusiasm  a  State  carries  a  prohi- 
bition law  by  a  small  majority,  some  drinking 
men  themselves  being  constrained  by  their 
neighbors  to  vote  for  the  law  and  against  their 
own  inclinations,  how  is  the  law  to  be  main- 
tained? By  public  opinion.  Who  creates 
public  opinion?  The  majority.  But  the  ma- 
jority drink,  and  will  continue  to  do  so  for  some 
generations  to  come,  unless  all  signs  fail.  Every 
State  has  a  law  against  bribery  and  corruption 
of  voters.  Is  bribery  or  corruption  less  common 
than  before  the  law  passed?  No;  it  becomes 
worse  year  by  year.  Why?  Because  public 
opinion  dare  not  and  will  not  support  the  law. 
Personal  interest,  expressed  in  party  feeling, 
winks  at  its  violation — not  all  the  while,  but 


THE   RUM    POWER.  77 

merely  every  time  there  is  anything  to  be  gained 
by  it. 

Both  sides  of  the  prohibition  question  were 
well  put  in  a  recent  conversation  between  a 
prominent  prohibitionist  and  Bishop  Foss,  of  the 
Methodist  Church,  who  has  worked  industriously 
for  years  to  decrease  the  rum  influence,  but 
believes  restriction  is  the  only  means  practical. 
"  Bishop,"  said  the  prohibitionist,  "  if  you  saw 
a  rattlesnake  in  the  street,  biting  people  and 
destroying  human  lives,  would  you  kill  it,  or  try 
to  pen  it  up  ?  "  The  bishop  replied,  "  If  I  had 
been  chasing  it  up  and  down  the  street  for  thirty 
years,  trying  to  kill  it  but  never  succeeding  in 
doing  anything  but  make  it  uglier,  I  would  con- 
sider myself  lucky  if  I  had  a  chance  to  pen  it 
up." 

Then  should  law  take  the  form  of  restriction  ? 
Yes  ;  but  immediately  the  law-makers  discover 
in  the  words  of  some  satirist  of  the  past  genera- 
tion, that  a  great  many  men  can  be  found  in 
favor  of  a  certain  provision  in  law,  who  are  against 
its  enforcement  by  any  method  that  is  suggested 
in  the  form  of  a  bill  before  any  Legislature  or 
Congress.  A  restrictive  measure  immediately 
affects  a  great  many  business  interests.  Moral- 
ists would  like  the  sale  of  liquor  restricted. 
Well,  so  would  a  great  many  liquor  dealers.  If 
a  poll  were  taken  of  the  wholesale  dealers  in  liq- 
uors in  the  United  States,  regardless  of  section 


78  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

or  environment,  it  would  be  overwhelmingly  in 
favor  of  limiting  the  number  of  rum-shops,  and 
compelling  the  sale  of  only  the  better  class  of 
goods.  Perhaps  the  wholesale  dealers  are  not 
philanthropists,  but  their  work  is  in  the  direction 
of  philanthrophy  in  the  respect  that  they  make 
more  money  on  old  and  well-refined  liquors,  and 
consequently  would  prefer  that  nothing  else 
should  be  sold. 

Restriction  can  be  attained  in  no  other  way  ex- 
cept through  license  laws,  and  upon  these  at  once 
the  entire  public  agree  to  disagree.  A  license 
law  that  would  regulate  the  traffic  in  a  large  city 
would  be  utterly  destructive  of  the  entire  retail 
liquor  interests  of  the  country  districts.  Conse- 
quently the  country  dealers,  through  their  rep- 
resentatives in  Legislatures,  protest  strongly 
against  any  such  enactment  as  the  famous  Scott 
bill,  which  was  of  such  great  service  in  restrict- 
ing the  liquor  trade  in  the  State  of  Ohio.  The 
license  exacted  from  a  retailer  in  a  large  city 
would  consume  the  entire  profit  of  a  country 
dealer,  even  if  he  were  the  only  one  in  his  town. 
City  prices  and  country  prices  are  different.  It 
may  be  also  stated  upon  undoubted  authority,  for 
the  information  of  prohibitionists  and  other  gen- 
tlemen who  have  never  looked  into  the  practical 
details  of  the  liquor  trade  for  themselves,  that 
the  countryman's  drink  compares  with  that  of 


THE  RUM    POWER.  7!) 

the  city  man  about  as  a  full  bath-tub  does  to  a 
basin  of  water. 

After  restriction,  and  lowest,  though  not  least 
important,  among  the  list  of  reformatory  meas- 
ures, conies  the  principle  of  regulation.  Can  the 
liquor  trade  be  regulated?  Should  it  be  regu- 
lated in  the  interest  of  morality  and  the  public 
safety?  Yes.  We  regulate  everything  else — 
absolutely  everything — that  affects  the  safety  of 
humanity.  We  stipulate  by  law  or  special  li- 
cense where  dynamite  factories  shall  be  located, 
how  dynamite  shall  be  transported,  where  it  shall 
be  stored,  how  it  shall  be  sold,  and  every  other 
stage  of  the  trade  in  this  dangerous  yet  useful 
article  of  commerce.  We  regulate  the  trade  in 
gunpowder ;  there  are  very  few  States  in  which 
any  minor  is  allowed  to  purchase  any  quantity 
of  gunpowder  or  any  other  explosive.  We  regu- 
late the  sales  of  poisonous  medicines,  no  matter 
how  useful  they  may  be,  forbidding  the  chemist 
to  sell  them  except  on  a  physician's  order, 
and  we  make  him  keep  them  specially  classi- 
fied, and  label  every  package  or  bottle  or  box 
of  them  which  he  sells,  and  to  record  the  name 
of  the  purchaser.  We  regulate  even  the  speed 
of  horses  in  large  cities ;  although  every  man 
is  supposed  to  be  able  to  take  his  ease  and  pleas- 
ure with  a  horse  and  carriage  if  he  can  afford 
them  or  hire  them,  in  all  large  communities  it 
is  required  that  he  shall  not  drive  at  more  than 


80  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

a  certain  pace.  None  of  these  regulations  are 
regarded  as  abridgements  of  personal  liberty. 
All  of  them  are  admitted  to  be  necessary  pre- 
cautions for  the  good  of  the  entire  community. 

Unfortunately  the  principal  opposition  to  regu- 
lation, which  is  the  easiest  and  most  practicable 
method  of  reducing  the  dangers  of  the  rum 
traffic,  comes  not  from  rum-drinkers  them- 
selves, but  from  those  who  never  consume  any 
liquor — I  mean  the  prohibitionists.  Their  prin- 
ciple seems  to  be  the  old,  big-hearted,  but  ut- 
terly impracticable  one  of  "  a  whole  loaf  or 
none."  In  a  number  of  recent  local  and  State 
elections,  in  which  the  regulation  of  the  liquor 
traffic  was  concerned,  the  prohibitionists  usually 
voted  with  the  advocates  of  free  rum,  not  that 
they  love  liquor  or  liquor  dealers,  but  that  unless 
they  could  have  their  own  way  they  preferred  to 
leave  things  as  they  were  before.  Their  pur- 
pose, as  nearly  as  it  can  be  discovered,  was  that 
the  more  fearful  condition  society  could  be  brought 
to  by  the  free  use  of  rum,  the  sooner  would  so- 
ciety protest  strongly  against  it  and  take  "  the 
only  true  view,"  this  being  the  prohibitionist's 
modest  way  of  putting  his  own  upinion.  The 
Russian  Nihilists,  whom  everybody  detests,  work 
on  the  same  principle; — things  can't  be  better 
until  they  have  first  been  as  bad  as  they  can. 

The  present  influence  of  rum  in  the  United 
States  upon  morals,  manners,  society,  and  poli- 


THK   RUM    POWER.  81 

tics,  must  be  charged  upon  those  who  have  la- 
bored most  earnestly  to  lessen  it.  Again  I  allude 
to  the  prohibitionists.  They  have  discouraged 
every  practical  effort  to  abate  the  evils  of  the  use 
of  liquor.  They  have  regarded  all  restrictive  or 
regulative  measures  about  as  Mr.  Garrison  once 
regarded  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  in 
its  relations  to  slavery — as  a  compact  with  the 
devil.  The  time  must  come  when  it  will  be  not 
only  unfashionable  but  indecorous  and  degrading 
for  any  man  to  use  liquor,  except  in  cases  of 
sickness ;  but  when  that  time  comes  the  people 
will  owe  no  thanks  whatever  to  those  who  have 
talked  most  against  the  influence  of  rum.  Once 
more,  and  for  the  last  time,  I  allude  to  the  pro- 
hibitionists. 

6 


CHAPTER  VI. 
FOR  WOMAN'S  SAKE. 

THE  evils  of  drink  must  be  lessened  in  some 
way,  if  only  for  woman's  sake.  Men  do  most 
of  the  drinking;  women  do  scarcely  any,  yet 
women  are  the  principal  sufferers.  Go  where 
you  will  in  any  town,  in  any  county,  in  any 
circle  of  society,  and  you  cannot  help  finding 
that  when  a  man  drinks  to  excess,  the  principal 
sufferer  is  not  himself,  but  some  woman.  Gen- 
erally it  is  his  wife,  frequently  it  is  his  mother, 
sometimes  it  is  a  daughter  or  perhaps  a  neg- 
lected sister,  but  no  man  with  any  family  ties 
can  give  way  to  the  influence  of  drink  without 
inflicting  severe  and  sometimes  lasting  suffering 
upon  some  woman. 

Whittier,  the  sweet-souled,  strong-brained 
poet,  has  put  the  matter  just  as  all  of  us  would 
like  to  put  it  for  himself,  when  he  says,  "  The 
world  is  full  of  suffering ;  but  my  deepest  pity 
is  reserved  for  womanhood  realizing  the  dreadful 
fall  of  the  victim  of  the  Tuscan  tyrant — a  loving, 
sensitive  and  delicate  life  fastened  to  the  rolling 
death  of  drunkenness." 

(82) 


FOR   WOMAN'S  SAKE.  83 

That  liquor  deadens  the  finer  sensibilities  of 
humanity  will  be  admitted  by  the  hardest  drinker 
alive  if  he  is  questioned  for  a  few  moments  upon 
the  motives  of  such  misdeeds  as  may  have  been 
alleged  against  him.  Every  scoundrel  who 
wishes  to  persuade  a  man  to  some  deed  of  doubt- 
ful morality,  or  perhaps  absolute  crime,  begins 
first  by  plying  him  with  drink.  Anyone  who 
wishes  to  confuse  a  man's  intellect  knows  that 
lie  can  do  it  quickest  by  filling  him  with  drink. 
Indeed,  the  majority  of  men  do  not  need  to  be 
full  or  half  full,  or  quarter  full  of  liquor  to  get 
entirely  out  of  control  of  their  better  sentiments. 
Whether,  as  the  materialists  say,  the  brain  is  all 
there  is  of  what  we  call  the  soul,  or,  as  the 
physiologists  say,  the  brain  is  the  medium 
through  which  the  soul  acts,  it  is  very  certain 
that  no  soul,  however  pure,  is  superior  to  a  large 
quantity  of  liquor.  Even  preachers  and  priests, 
good  and  unselfish  men  who  have  started  on 
errands  of  mercy  or  self-sacrifice,  have  occasion- 
ally been  found  drunk  and  helpless.  The  fault 
was  not  with  their  souls,  but  with  the  liquor 
which  they  took  into  their  bodies.  "  If  this  is 
so  with  the  green  tree,  what  must  it  be  with  the 
dry  ?  "  If  the  better  class  of  men  can  be  re- 
duced to  animalism  and  to  utter  inanity  by  the 
use  of  liquor,  what  must  be  the  effect  upon  the 
lower  orders  of  whom  society  is  largely  com- 
posed  ? 


84  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

It  is  a  delicate  subject  to  write  or  talk  about, 
nevertheless  it  is  an  undeniable  fact,  that  the 
most  sensitive  portions  of  the  human  physique 
are  the  quickest  affected  by  liquor.  The  young 
man  who  refuses  to  go  into  the  society  of  bad 
women,  refuses  no  longer  after  having  taken  two 
or  three  glasses  of  liquor.  The  man  whose 
manners  are  usually  courteous,  thoughtful  and 
unselfish,  can  be  detected  at  once  as  having  in- 
dulged in  drink  by  the  change  of  his  manner 
when  in  the  presence  of  women.  No  drunken 
man,  however  admirable  his  character  when  he 
is  sober,  is  regarded  as  a  fit  companion  for  re- 
spectable women.  Some  men  who  have  been 
regarded  as  models  of  courtesy  and  chivalry 
have  lost  caste  entirely  among  their  feminine 
acquaintances  through  a  single  indulgence  in 
drink. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  offer  proof  in  substantia- 
tion of  these  statements.  No  one  who  is  ac- 
quainted with  drinking  men  in  good  general 
standing  in  society  will  deny  that  the  foregoing 
statements  are  extremely  mild  in  comparison 
with  facts  which  they  themselves  can  adduce. 
What  then  must  be  the  effect  of  uncontrolled 
use  of  liquor  upon  the  great  mass  of  women  who 
are  practically  subservient  to  men  ? 

I  mean  the  majority  of  wives  in  America  and 
elsewhere.  In  this  country  woman  has  more 
liberty  and  independence  than  anywhere  else  in 


FOR    WOMAN'S  SAKE.  85 

the  world.  The  law  has  improved  her  position  in 
material  affairs  from  year  to  year  until  in  many 
States  she  is  almost  equal  to  her  husband  in  all 
respects  except  that  she  is  not  entitled  to  vote. 
But  in  the  family  circle  what  is  her  protection 
against  a  husband  who  is  under  the  influence  of 
liquor  ?  He  may  not  kill  her,  he  may  not  beat 
her,  he  may  not  use  insulting  and  abusive 
language  to  her,  but  there  are  privacies  and 
rights  of  domestic  life  which  it  is  impossible  for 
a  drunken  man  to  respect.  "  Drink  breeds  de- 
sire," says  Shakespeare.  That  this  is  a  fact  can 
be  proved  by  the  existence  of  some  millions  of 
children  who  never  ofhenvise  would  have  entered 
this  world.  The  subject  is  too  delicate  to  admit 
of  much  argument  or  of  any  proof.  It  is  suf- 
ficient to  state  it.  The  wives  of  drinking  men 
will  not  deny  it. 

For  woman's  sake  man  can  do  anything. 
Were  mankind  in  general  as  devoted  to  God  as 
to  women,  preachers  and  priests  would  find  their 
occupation  gone.  The  scoundrel  upon  whom  no 
warnings,  no  plea,  no  invitation  of  religion  have 
the  slightest  effect,  is  sometimes  led  by  a  woman 
as  safely  as  the  fabled  lion  whom  the  fairy  led 
with  a  single  strand  of  silk.  Man's  fondness 
for  woman  being  as  it  is,  it  would  seem  as  if  one 
great  reformatory  influence  has  been  neglected. 
Public  sentiment  differs  on  prohibitory  and  regu- 
latory laws,  but  it  is  on  the  side  of  woman  by  a 


86  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

tremendous  majority.  If  temperance  workers 
whose  customary  outlooks  are  discouraging  will 
find  inclination  and  brains  to  work  public  senti- 
ment against  rum  from  the  standpoint,  "  For 
Woman's  Sake,"  they  will  gain  more  ground  in 
a  year,  through  American  reverence  for  woman, 
than  can  be  obtained  by  a  century  of  argument. 
If  they  are  the  men  they  profess  to  be,  let  them 
try  it. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

TEMPERANCE  LIES  AND  TEMPERANCE  FACTS. 

MOST  men  engaged  in  mighty  reform  move- 
ments are  likely  to  become  fanatics.  This  isn't 
uncomplimentary  to  the  men  ;  it  merely  means 
that  the  cause  is  greater  than  any  of  its  advo- 
cates, as  every  great  cause  is,  and  the  advocates, 
promoters,  or  whatever  else  they  may  call  them- 
selves, are  dazed  by  the  contemplation  of  the 
subject  before  them.  This  is  exceedingly  unfortu- 
nate, though,  for  it  makes  men  incapable  of 
seeing  any  way  but  their  own  to  whatever  end 
may  be  desirable.  The  fellow  who  would  insist 
that  there  is  only  one  way  to  go  from  Chicago, 
St.  Louis,  or  London  to  New  York  would  hear 
some  uncomplimentary  things  about  himself  if 
he  were  to  listen  at  a  key-hole  ;  in  most  cases  it 
would  not  be  necessary  to  look  for  a  key-hole. 

The  curse  of  rum  might  be  greatly  lessened, 
in  its  power  for  harm,  by  personal  effort,  did  not 
almost  every  reformer  msist  that  there  is  only 
one  way  of  doing  it.  The  proper  course  for  the 
sensible  man  is  to  admit  that  all  methods  are 
practicable,  if  each  be  applied  with  a  sense  of  ap- 

(87) 


88  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

propriateness  to  the  individual  to  be  reformed. 
Thousands  of  drunkards  are  being  reformed 
every  year  through  a  great  variety  of  influences 
at  which  "  machine  "  reformers  sneer.  The  ref- 
ormation of  one  drunkard  is  more  beneficial  to 
a  community  than  a  large  reduction  of  taxes  for 
the  year.  Just  look  at  a  few  possible  means. 

A  large  section  of  temperance  workers  insist 
that  permanent  reform  can  come  only  through 
religion.  This  statement  is  not  true,  and  when 
some  men  make  it,  it  is  a  deliberate  lie.  Never- 
theless, the  most  powerful  influence  in  reform  of 
personal  character,  in  any  direction,  is  the  spirit 
of  religion.  Whatever  the  Church,  whatever  the 
creed,  whoever  the  teacher  may  be,  honest  relig- 
ious feeling  can  nerve  a  man  to  more  self-repres- 
sion, self-restraint,  self-control,  than  any  other 
power,  and  there  may  come  a  time  when  religion 
will  have  this  influence  over  all  men.  But  at 
present  its  full  development  is  hindered  by  the 
fact  that,  as  a  rule,  he  who  wants  you  to  go  by 
the  heavenly  road  is  never  satisfied  unless  you 
travel  in  exactly  his  Twn  footsteps — and  footsteps 
differ. 

The  Church  could  do  wonders — if  it  would. 
Rev.  Dr.  Cuyler,  who  has  worked  as  hard  in  the 
cause  of  temperance  as  any  other  pastor,  states 
plainly  the  duty  of  the  Church :  "  If  Jesus  Christ 
established  His  Church  for  the  very  purpose  of 
saving  human  society  from  its  sins,  then  the 


TEMPERANCE   LIES   AND    FACTS.  89 

highest  sin  that  curses  society  should  command 
its  foremost  attention."  That  is  logic.  But 
what  Church  acts  accordingly  ?  Mine  doesn't ; 
does  yours  ?  No  ?  I  thought  not.  The  Church 
is  so  busy  in  making  people  believe  right  that  it 
doesn't  have  time  to  make  them  live  right. 
Here's  another  bit  of  sound  reasoning  from  Dr. 
Cuyler :  "If  the  Church  is  a  proper  organism 
for  saving  men  out  of  drunkenness,  then,  by 
sound  logic,  it  ought  to  be  a  proper  organism  to 
keep  people  from  falling  into  drunkenness.  It 
ought  to  be  a  school  of  instruction  to  teach  inex- 
perienced youth  not  to  tamper  with  the  ensnar- 
ing wiles  of  the  tempter."  Is  it  such  a  school? 
How  many  churches — congregations,  I  mean,  for 
these  are  the  workers  with  which  the  individual 
comes  in  visible  contact — how  many  congrega- 
tions teach  young  men  of  any  preventive  meas- 
ures, except  prayer  and  good  company  ?  How 
many  teach  him  that  cleanliness,  proper  food, 
good  digestion,  ample  sleep,  and  avoidance  of 
excitement — that  these  at  least  are  necessary  to 
the  young  man  who  does  not  want  his  physique 
to  get  down  to  where  it  craves  stimulation  ?  To 
the  Church  the  body  is  nothing,  the  soul  every- 
thing, but,  with  all  its  power,  the  Church  can't  di- 
vorce soul  and  body  without  making  trouble  for 
humanity  and  grief  for  itself. 

Next  to  religion,  formally  expressed  and  fol- 
lowed, may  be  placed  the  power  of  prayer.     It 


90  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

should  be  of  great  comfort  to  religious  teachers 
everywhere  that  very  many  men  who  have 
given  the  Church  a  great  deal  of  uneasiness  are 
also  given  to  earnest  prayer.  Human  beings  are 
dependent  creatures  ;  no  one  knows  it  better  than 
they  themselves,  and  some  men,  whose  lives  are 
almost  everything  they  should  not  be,  declare  that 
they  give  the  Lord  very  little  peace  while  they  are 
awake.  This  may  be  natural  religion,  or  no  re- 
ligion at  all,  but  it  is  impossible  to  believe  that 
the  man  who  is  constantly  seeking  assistance 
from  a  higher  power,  although  he  may  not  do  it 
by  any  means  prescribed  by  those  who  make  a 
specialty  of  defining  the  relations  of  man  to  his 
Creator,  will  not  sooner  or  later  receive  some  en- 
couragement and  support.  From  the  earliest 
periods  of  recorded  historj^,  men  of  all  classes 
and  races  have  lifted  up  their  hearts  to  such  gods 
as  they  chanced  to  have,  and  some  have  become 
better  by  the  influence.  The  prayer  of  the 
drunkard  is  sometimes  as  earnest  and  honest  as 
any  that  can  be  made  by  better  men.  He  who 
most  feels  his  needs  is  naturally  he  who  will  ask 
most  earnestly  for  assistance. 

A  man  may  also  break  the  power  of  drink  by 
opposing  to  it  the  sentiment  of  self-respect. 
Some  classes  of  temperance  reformers  insist  this 
is  not  true.  But  a  theory  opposed  to  a  demon- 
strated fact  is  as  worthless  as  a  pop-gun  against 
an  iron-clad.  Drunkards  have  reformed  without 


TEMPERANCE   LIES   AND   FACTS.  91 

any  visible  religious  influence  or  any  other 
power  outside  of  themselves,  but  solely  through 
their  respect  for  themselves  and  their  regard  for 
what  others  may  say  about  them.  By  self- 
respect  I  mean  self-respect — not  pride — for  the 
proudest  man  is  generally  he  who  can  make 
most  excuses  for  his  own  faults  and  continue  in 
them.  It  is  very  hard  to  find  a  drunkard  of 
"  good  family "  and  good  position  who  is  not 
proudest  when  he  is  drunkest.  But  the  man  of 
genuine  self-respect,  the  man  who  has  in  him 
the  feeling  that  he  is  judged  by  his  actions, 
is  generally  the  most  remorseful  and  pitiable  in 
the  whole  fraternity  of  drunkards. 

Family  pride,  too,  may  have  an  immense  in- 
fluence in  the  direction  of  reforming  the  man 
who  is  given  to  too  much  drink.  Family  pride 
is  very  much  like  the  sentiment  of  national 
honor.  The  nation  may  have  no  honor  to  speak 
of  and  the  family  may  more  rightly  be  concerned 
about  its  faults  than  its  merits,  but  so  long  as 
the  sentiment  exists,  pride  in  a  family  and  what 
the  family  has  done,  or  thought  it  has  done, 
or  perhaps  what  it  expects  to  do,  has  raised 
many  men  from  various  depths  of  depravity,  in- 
cluding drunkenness.  It  has  brought  some 
utter  infidels  from  many  and  almost  all  species 
of  debauchery  and  degradation  to  nominal  re- 
spectability. Don't  try  to  kick  over  the  drunk- 


92  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

ard's  family  pride  ;  use  it  as  a  lever  with  which  to 
raise  him. 

Force  of  example  has  probably  saved  more 
men  from  drunkenness  than  all  prohibition 
lectures  combined.  The  most  fruitful  incentive 
to  inordinate  use  of  liquor  in  any  community  is 
the  fact  that  A  or  B  or  C,  all  recognized  as  promi- 
nent, successful,  respectable  citizens,  are  known 
to  use  liquor  whenever  they  feel  so  disposed  and 
often  to  use  too  much.  The  man  of  lower 
quality,  taught  to  look  at  these  models  of  con- 
duct, as  they  are  regarding  material  affairs,  can- 
not be  blamed  for  taking  his  cue  from  them  re- 
garding the  use  of  liquor.  At  one  time  in  New 
York,  when  a  large  circle  of  tremendous  drinkers 
had  been  argued  with  and  labored  upon  and 
prayed  for  by  temperance  reformers  of  various 
kinds,  the  entire  crowd  was  converted  to  total 
abstinence  by  one  of  their  own  set,  whose  only 
argument  was,  "  Boys,  we  are  all  wrong,  and  I 
will  stop  short  if  you  will."  The  leader  of  this 
moral  movement  was  not  a  moderate  drinker,  nor 
a  Christian,  nor  a  man  of  specially  high  char- 
acter in  any  particular,  but  his  associates  were 
led  to  follow  him  by  the  admirable  sentiment, 
which  certainly  is  more  abundant  in  America 
than  anywhere  else  in  the  world,  that  they  were 
not  going  to  let  any  man  get  the  better  of  them 
in  any  particular.  The  man  who  is  wondering 
about  various  methods  of  suppressing  the  liquor 


TEMPERANCE    LIES   AND   FACTS.  93 

traffic  without  any  regard  to  his  own  consump- 
tion of  the  dangerous  article,  can  always  find  a 
place  for  himself  as  reformer  by  starting  a  move- 
ment of  this  kind  in  his  own  social  circle,  and 
he  may  have  the  consolation  of  knowing  that 
every  woman,  every  wife,  sister,  mother  and 
sweetheart  in  his  whole  circle  of  acquaintance 
will  rise  up  and  call  him  blessed. 

Drinking  men  have  often  been  reformed  by 
being  compelled,  in  cold  blood,  to  see  the  ex- 
pense which  their  habit  compels.  On  this  sub- 
ject, fortunately,  it  cannot  be  said  that  figures 
lie.  The  cost  of  different  varieties  of  liquor  are 
very  well  known.  So  are  the  prices  of  all 
articles  of  domestic  necessity  or  comfort.  The 
drinking  man  who  can  be  persuaded  to  keep  an 
account  for  a  single  day  of  his  expenditures  for 
liquor  for  himself,  or  his  friends,  or  both,  can 
be  shown  very  quickly  that  he  is  robbing  his 
wife  and  his  family,  if  he  chances  to  have  one, 
of  a  great  many  comforts  which  they  lack,  for 
what  woman  in  the  world  is  not  apparently  in 
need  of  something  else  at  once  which  will  cost 
considerable  money?  (Women  do  not  differ 
from  men  in  this  respect.) 

When  other  arguments  fail,  an  inordinate 
drinker  in  America,  if  he  is  of  half-way  decent 
extraction,  may  often  be  reformed  by  appeals  to 
his  ambition.  There  is  but  one  class  of  Ameri- 
cans in  which  every  member  does  not  look  for- 


94  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

ward  to  reaching  a  better  station  in  life.  The 
class  alluded  to  is  that  of  tramps.  There  is  no 
mechanic  or  common  laborer  so  low  in  the  busi- 
ness scale  that  he  cannot  recall  some  one  who 
started  quite  as  low  as  he,  and  who  now  is  in  a 
position  of  prominence.  Although  workingmen 
are  in  the  habit  of  saying  the  chances  are  not 
what  they  used  to  be,  and  that  a  poor  man  is  not 
in  the  way  of  getting  up  in  the  world,  facts  prove 
him  to  be  either  ignorant  of  commercial  conditions 
or  wilfully  false  in  his  statements.  At  the  present 
time  it  would  be  easy  for  any  man  of  large  ac- 
quaintance to  count  a  dozen  or  twenty  prominent 
and  successful  business  men  who  started  with 
nothing,  less  than  a  generation  ago.  "What 
man  has  done,  man  can  do."  The  laborer,  the 
mechanic,  when  not  in  his  cups,  knows  this  per- 
fectly well,  believes  it,  and  hopes  accordingly. 
If  his  ambition  can  be  aroused,  it  will  be  a 
better  stimulant  than  any  amount  of  drink.  The 
experiment  has  often  been  made  successfully. 
Several  men  who  stand  high  in  their  respective 
business  circles  in  the  United  States  to-day,  can 
be  remembered  as  deplorable  drunkards  twenty 
years  ago.  Their  success  began  when  their  am- 
bition began  to  show  in  work. 

Physical  prudence  can  be  made  a  powerful 
lever  to  raise  the  drunkard  out  of  the  bog  into 
which  his  bad  habits  have  placed  him.  No  man 
wants  to  die.  He  may  become  depressed  and 


TEMPERANCE   UES   AND    FACTS.  95 

desperate  enough  to  express  a  wish  for  death,  but 
he  generally  makes  active  efforts  to  escape  the 
opportunity.  There  is  a  well-known  fable  of 
everybody's  friend,  the  venerable  ^sop,  which 
illustrates  this.  So  long  as  he  is  young  and 
can  "  sleep  off  a  drunk,"  as  the  expression  is,  and 
"  come  up  smiling  after  the  last  round,"  the  in- 
ordinate drinker  may  be  careless  about  his  physi- 
cal future.  But  however  careless  he  may  also 
be  about  the  future  of  his  wife  and  family,  he 
can  be  brought  to  his  senses  very  easily  when  he 
reaches  the  condition,  which  inevitably  all  drunk- 
ards reach,  of  not  being  able  to  recover  rapidly 
from  a  severe  attack  of  rum.  It  would  be  de- 
lightful to  record  that  all  reformed  drunkards 
were  started  on  their  upward  course  by  warn- 
ings and  persuasions  of  a  high  and  unselfish 
character;  but  the  truth  is,  as  any  man  knows 
who  is  well  acquainted  with  human  nature,  per- 
sonal reformation  of  any  kind  usually  begins 
through  fright.  A  week  of  work  lost  by  results 
of  inordinate  indulgence,  or  an  accident  to  limb 
or  life,  has  more  reformatory  power  upon  the 
average  man  than  all  the  moral  and  spiritual  in- 
fluences in  existence.  Bobby  Burns  says,  "The 
fear  of  hell  is  a  hangman's  whip  to  keep  the  mob 
in  order,"  and  physical  injury  conies  as  near  the 
average  man's  idea  of  hell  as  anything  that  could 
be  instanced. 

Physical   pride   seems    to   be   a    contemptible 


96  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

quality,  but  it  can  be  used  with  the  best  of 
effects  upon  a  great  many  men  who  seem  imper- 
vious to  any  other  argument.  Proper  physical 
habits  can  do  more  to  discourage  the  use  of 
liquor  than  all  other  influences  combined.  This 
may  seem  irreverent  to  some  temperance  workers 
who  have  depended  upon  powers  higher  than 
themselves — powers  which  all  of  us  respect  and 
revere.  But,  as  already  said,  facts  are  facts,  and 
theories  must  not  get  in  their  way.  A  large  pro- 
portion, perhaps  a  majority,  of  the  total  abstain- 
ers in  the  world  are  not  religious  or  specially 
moral.  They  do  not  abstain  from  liquor  from 
any  conscientious  scruples,  but  because  they  have 
no  desire  for  it.  When  the  cause  of  this  lack  of 
desire  is  discovered  it  is  found  to  be  a  good 
physical  condition  and  balance.  The  man  whose 
system  does  not  need  some  stimulant,  or  at  least 
crave  it  through  weakness,  can  scarcely  be  per- 
suaded to  touch  it,  and  a  single  slight  indulgence 
is  to  him  a  matter  of  more  discomfort  than  any 
ordinary  physical  punishment. 

Almost  every  day  in  New  York  may  be  seen 
on  Broadway  and  in  some  resorts  where  men  of 
doubtful  character  congregate,  a  citizen  who  has 
made  the  officers  of  the  law  a  great  deal  of 
trouble,  who  has  been  in  prison  for  good  cause, 
and  who  never  was  known  to  utter  a  moral  sen- 
timent, much  less  a  religious  one ;  nevertheless, 
he  has  never  once  in  his  life  tasted  liquor.  He 


TEMPERANCE   LIES  AND   FACTS.  97 

wishes  it  distinctly  understood  that  he  does  not 
refrain  froin  any  moral  principle  or  sense  of  self- 
respect,  but  because  liquor  would  do  him  no  good, 
and  on  the  contrary  would  make  him  very  uncom- 
fortable. He  is  a  thief;  he  has  been  a  prize-fighter ; 
he  is  suspected  of  having  been  a  counterfeiter,  and 
is  known  to  be  a  receiver  of  stolen  goods  ;  yet  he  is 
as  strictly  a  total  abstainer  as  the  most  religious 
member  of  the  Prohibition  party.  He  is  careful 
to  explain  that  his  abstinence  is  solely  on  the 
ground  of  personal  comfort.  He  has  a  good 
physique,  which  he  never  has  abused,  and  which, 
therefore,  never  claims  consolation  for  abuse. 
He  has  frequently  lectured  officers  of  the  law, 
when  he  has  been  brought  before  them,  for  their 
own  fault  in  using  liquor,  the  charge  against  him 
at  the  very  time  being  that  he  persuaded  some 
one  else  to  commit  crime  by  first  coaxing  him  to 
drink.  He  has  defended  himself  by  saying, 
'  You  drink  wine  at  your  table  and  whiskey 
once  in  a  while  at  a  bar ;  why  should  not  this 
man  do  it  ?  You  have  all  comforts  and  consola- 
tions about  you,  and  he  has  not  any  but  rum.  I 
do  not  see  how  that  helps  him,  but  he  does,  and 
you  ought  to."  If  a  man  of  this  character  can 
keep  himself  entirely  free  from  the  drinking 
habit,  what  may  not  be  done  by  better  men  who 
have  devoted  themselves  to  improving  their  own 
physical  condition  ? 

Some  drunkards  can  be  reformed  by  proper 

7 


98  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

feeding.  A  man's  physique  depends  largely 
upon  his  treatment  at  home.  It  may  not  be 
right  to  assume  that  woman  is  made  only  to  be 
a  man's  cook  and  provide  him  with  proper  cloth- 
ing and  see  that  he  attends  to  his  ablutions,  that 
he  goes  to  bed  at  proper  hours  and  does  not  rise 
too  early,  but  one  thing  is  certain :  the  man  who 
has  filled  his  stomach  with  good  food  cannot  soon 
afterward  fill  it  with  bad  rum.  The  one  prescrip- 
tion which  the  rumsellers  themselves  give  to  in- 
ordinate drinkers  who  wish  to  break  away  for  a 
little  while  from  their  tyrant  is,  "  Go  off  and  get 
a  full  meal."  New  York  has  one  rumseller  who, 
strange  though  it  may  seem,  is  a  man  of  large 
conscience,  which  he  has  kept  in  active  working 
operation.  When  one  of  this  man's  customers 
becomes  severely  run  down  through  the  use  of 
liquor,  the  proprietor  takes  him  upon  his  con- 
science and  also  upon  his  hands.  He  invites  the 
poor  fellow  out  for-a  day,  takes  him  a  hard  walk 
in  the  country  over  roads  upon  which  there  are 
no  saloons,  and  finally  stops  at  a  place  where  a 
good  meal  can  be  had.  In  an  hour  he  resumes 
the  walk,  which  is  continued  for  a  long  time  and 
concluded  at  some  other  place,  where  again  a  large 
meal  is  taken.  Then  he  conducts  the  unfortunate 
back  to  his  home  and  tells  him  that,  if  he  will  go 
right  to  bed  and  to  sleep,  he  won't  want  a  drink 
that  day,  and  that  if  he  takes  one  the  next  day 
it  will  be  without  the  slightest  excuse.  This 


TEMPERANCE   LIES   AND   FACTS.  99 

man  must  be  sincere,  for  his  method  of  physical 
treatment  has  cost  him  a  great  many  good  cus- 
tomers. 

It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  woman  shall  make 
herself  the  slave  of  man  merely  for  the  sake  of 
keeping  man  from  enslaving  himself.  But  it  is 
certain  that  the  man  who  is  properly  and  suffi- 
ciently fed  will  have  no  actual  need  for  liquor.  I 
say  "  need,"  because  the  prevalence  of  the  drink- 
ing habit  is  largely  due  to  actual  need.  No  other 
term  can  properly  express  it.  It  is  no  more 
truthful  to  say  that  a  man  never  needs  liquor,  no 
matter  how  unnecessary  the  cause  of  his  craving, 
than  to  say  that  he  never  needs  quinine  or  calo- 
mel or  any  other  of  the  thousand  medicines  which 
are  given  daily  by  reputable  medical  practitioners, 
and  which,  if  they  were  prohibited  by  law,  would 
lead  to  a  greater  riot  than  history  has  ever  re- 
corded. 

I  leave  the  hardest  method  of  reform  to  the 
last.  It  is  hardest  because  it  compels  the  tem- 
perance apostle  to  put  his  hand  into  his  pocket — 
his  most  sensitive  part,  unless  he  is  unlike  the 
rest  of  us.  It  is  to  deliberately  buy  the  drunkard 
back  to  respectability.  It  is  less  tried  than  any 
other  method — you  all  know  why.  The  mere 
thought  of  trying  it  on  some  heavy  drinker 
among  my  own  acquaintances  sends  cold  chills 
all  over  me.  It  has  worked  wonders,  though. 
A.  little  financial  worry,  if  prolonged,  will  drive 


100  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

the  average  man  to  drink,  and  the  drink  gener- 
ally increases  the  worry.  To  set  a  man  on  his 
feet,  morally,  by  paying  his  debts  is  not  always 
practicable,  but  frequently  it  is.  You  can  buy 
many  a  hard  drinker  off  by  relieving  him  from 
some  small  but  tormenting  bill,  or  by  giving  him 
a  new  suit  of  clothes — not  old  ones — or  by  giv- 
ing him  steady  work,  if  he  is  out  of  employment. 
You  can  be  three  times  as  sure  of  him  if  you'll 
do  all  three  of  these  services  at  once.  I've  said 
this  to  many  enthusiastic  temperance  shouters, 
but  somehow  they  looked  solemn  and  doubtful 
right  away,  and  had  to  change  the  subject. 
Others  have  told  me  that  it  wouldn't  work,  but  I 
had  them  there,  for  I  sprung  John  B.  Cough's 
story  on  them — his  story  of  his  own  reformation. 
Let  me  read  it  to  you — I  have  it  in  my  pocket — 
it's  a  good  thing  for  a  man  to  carry,  if  he's  in  the 
habit  of  meeting  reformers  who  are  "  all  talk  and 
no  turnips."  Gough  says  fce  was  slouching 
about  the  streets  of  Worcester,  half  full  of  rum 
and  the  other  half  of  him  full  of  dismal  thoughts, 
when 

"  Some  one  tapped  me  on  the  shoulder — an 
unusual  thing,  that,  to  occur  to  me ;  for  no  one 
now  cared  to  come  in  contact  with  the  wretched, 
shabby-looking  drunkard.  I  was  a  disgrace — '  a 
living,  walking  disgrace.'  I  could  scarcely  be- 
lieve my  own  senses  when  I  turned  and  met  a 
kind  look.  The  thing  was  so  unusual  and  so 


TEMPERANCE   LIES  AND  FACTS.  101 

entirely  unexpected  that  I  questioned  the  reality 
of  it ;  but  so  it  was.  It  was  the  first  touch  of 
kindness  which  I  had  known  for  months ;  and 
simple  and  trifling  as  the  circumstance  may  ap- 
pear to  many,  it  went  right  to  niy  heart,  and,  like 
the  wing  of  an  angel,  troubled  the  waters  in  that 
stagnant  pool  of  affection,  and  made  them  once 
more  reflect  a  little  of  the  light  of  human  love. 
The  person  who  touched  my  shoulder  was  an  en- 
tire stranger.  I  looked  at  him,  wondering  what 
his  business  was  with  me.  Regarding  me  very 
earnestly,  and  apparently  with  much  interest,  he 
said: 

"'Mr.  Gough,  I  believe?' 

'  That  is  my  name,'  I  replied,  and  was  pass- 
ing on. 

"'You  have  been  drinking  to-day,'  said  the 
stranger  in  a  kind  voice,  which  arrested  my  at- 
tention, and  quite  dispelled  any  anger  at  what 
I  might  otherwise  have  considered  an  officious 
interference  in  my  affairs. 

"'Yes,  sir,' I  replied,  'I  have.' 

"'Why  do  you  not  sign  the  pledge?'  was  the 
next  query. 

"  I  considered  for  a  minute  or  two,  and  then  in- 
formed the  strange  friend  who  had  so  unexpectedly 
interested  himself  in  my  behalf  that  I  had  no 
hope  of  ever  again  becoming  a  sober  man  ;  that  I 
was  without  a  single  friend  in  the  world  who 
cared  for  me  or  what  became  of  me ;  that  I  fully 


102  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

expected  to  die  very  soon — I  cared  not  how  soon, 
or  whether  I  died  drunk  or  sober;  and,  in  fact, 
that  I  was  in  a  condition  of  utter  wretchedness. 

"  The  stranger  regarded  me  with  a  benevolent 
look,  took  me  by  the  arm,  and  asked  me  how  I 
should  like  to  be  as  I  once  was,  respectable  and 
esteemed,  well-clad,  and  sitting  as  I  used  to  in  a 
place  of  worship,  enabled  to  meet  my  friends  as 
in  old  times,  and  receive  from  them  the  pleasant 
nod  of  recognition  as  formerly ;  in  fact,  become  a 
useful  member  of  society. 

"  Only  sign  the  pledge,"  said  my  friend,"  and  I 
will  warrant  that  it  shall  be  so.  Sign  it  and  I 
will  introduce  you  to  good  friends,  who  will  feel 
an  interest  in  your  welfare,  and  take  a  pleasure 
in  helping  you  keep  your  good  resolutions. 
Only  sign  the  pledge,  and  all  will  be  as  I  have 
said;  aye,  and  more  too." 

Gough  signed ;  his  friend  kept  his  word.  The 
drunkard  suddenly  found  good  clothes  on  his 
back,  money  in  his  pocket,  and  regular  employ- 
ment at  good  pay.  The  world  knows  the  rest. 
No  one  man  has  done  more  than  Gough  for  the 
temperance  cause. 

But  Gough  wasn't  a  common  drunkard. 
Wasn't,  eh  ?  He  himself  says  he  was  the  lowest 
of  the  low — he  ought  to  know.  But  the  man 
who  reformed  him  wasn't  a  common  reformer. 
Aye,  there's  the  rub. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

NATIONAL  DEFENCE. 

IF  Heaven  helps  only  those  who  help  them- 
selves the  United  States  will  be  deplorably  help- 
less the  first  time  they  fall  into  difficulty  with 
any  foreign  power. 

Ever  since  the  late  civil  war  ended  the  general 
of  the  army  has  annually  given  us  earnest  and 
intelligent  warning  as  to  the  incomplete  state  of 
our  fortifications,  and  the  inability  of  our  artillery 
for  offensive  and  defensive  operations  against  the 
improved  armaments  with  which  other  nations 
have  amply  supplied  themselves.  The  admiral 
of  the  navy  has  made  similar  reports.  For  a  little 
while  this  looked  like  unnecessary  precaution  or 
what  a  distinguished  Congressman  once  called  old 
woman's  fussiness.  Hadn't  we  just  triumphed 
over  the  largest  armies  that  had  been  brought 
into  the  field,  except  by  ourselves,  in  half  a  cen- 
tury ?  Hadn't  we  organized  a  navy  out  of  noth- 
ing, armed  it  splendidly,  and  done  with  it  what- 
ever was  desirable  that  the  naval  power  of  the 
country  should  attempt  ?  To  be  sure,  our  forts 
were  few,  but  so  were  our  harbors.  The  construc- 

(108) 


104  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

tion  of  some  of  the  harbor  forts  in  the  United 
States  was  admired  by  the  engineers  of  all  the 
other  civilized  powers  only  thirty  years  ago,  and 
the  public  knew  of  it.  To  afterward  be  told  that 
these  splendid  and  expensive  structures  were  of 
no  use,  that  they  were  inadequate,  that  two  or 
three  guns  on  a  second  or  third-rate  ship  of  some 
second  or  third-rate  naval  power  could  knock 
them  to  pieces  would  have  been  humiliating  had 
it  not  been  enraging. 

Attempts  were  made  from  time  to  time,  in  the 
earlier  years  following  the  close  of  the  war,  to 
keep  our  military  and  naval  establishment  in  fine 
condition.  We  had  admirable  staff  departments, 
and  large  "plants"  for  the  manufacture  of  almost 
everything  required  in  ordnance  and  ammunition. 
We  had  the  nucleus  of  a  navy  and  army  from 
which  a  peace  establishment  unequalled  by  any 
on  the  face  of  the  earth  might  have  been  selected. 
But  we  let  it  all  go.  No  such  spectacle  as  the 
disbandment  and  disappearance  of  the  great 
armies  of  the  North  and  South  was  ever  before 
seen,  and  historians  have  glorified  in  this.  Sol- 
diers, however,  whose  opinions  we  may  yet  be 
called  upon  to  respect,  regarded  the  spectacle  in 
entirely  a  different  light.  We  had  once  before 
been  caught — by  England — napping  in  a  most 
unexpected  way,  said  these  old  fellows ;  we  paid 
dearly  for  our  neglect ;  but  now  we  are  repeating 
exactly  the  same  blunder.  Excellent  men  who 


NATIONAL   DEFENCE.  105 

were  willing  to  remain  in  the  service  were  allowed 
to  go,  material  of  every  kind  was  disposed  of  at 
auction  as  rapidly  as  possible,  and  nothing  was 
provided  to  take  its  place.  The  numerical  force 
of  the  standing  army  was  reduced  more  and  more 
until  even  the  Indians  held  us  in  contempt.  In- 
dian massacres  on  the  border  have  frequently 
been  charged  to  the  rascality  or  duplicity  of  the 
white  men.  Undoubtedly  the  Indians  have  had 
a  great  many  provocations,  but,  so  far  as  restraint 
through  fear  is  concerned,  they  have  been  sub- 
jected to  very  little  of  this  very  necessary  disci- 
pline. Large  bands  of  armed  Indians  have  been 
able  to  keep  brave  but  small  detachments  of 
United  States  troops  within  small  camps  or  forts, 
to  isolate  them  and  taunt  them  for  days  in  suc- 
cession, to  steal  cattle,  murder  settlers,  desolate 
the  country,  all  because  they  had  contempt  for 
an  army  which  was  so  small  that  it  never  could 
oppose  more  than  a  handful  to  any  Indian  raid 
which  might  suddenly  be  made. 

Just  look  at  some  of  the  warnings  we  have  had 
during  recent  years.  In  his  last  report  as  com- 
mander of  the  army  (1887),  General  Sheridan 
said :  '  The  condition  of  our  sea-coast  defences 
has  continued  to  deteriorate  during  the  year,  and 
the  majority  of  them,  both  as  regards  the  mate- 
rial of  which  they  are  built,  their  location  and 
present  armament,  would  prove  of  but  little  real 
service  in  time  of  foreign  war." 


106  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

What  was  done  about  it?     Nothing. 

General  Sheridan  further  advised  that  we 
should  adopt  some  modern  magazine  rifle  for  our 
soldiers,  as  all  foreign  nations  had  refitted  their 
armies  with  these  guns. 

What  was  done  about  it  ?     Nothing. 

General  Sheridan  further  said :  "  I  am  strongly 
in  favor  of  the  general  movement  extending  all 
possible  aid  to  the  National  Guard  of  the  different 
States,  as  they  constitute  a  body  of  troops  that  in 
any  great  emergency  would  form  an  important 
part  of  our  military  force." 

What  was  done  about  it  ?     Nothing. 

Before  Sheridan,  General  Sherman  made  clear, 
vigorous,  sensible  protests  every  year  against  our 
neglect  to  maintain  good  defences,  but  nothing 
came  of  it  in  the  way  of  improvement.  After 
Sheridan's  death,  General  Schofield,  the  ranking 
officer  of  the  army,  continued  the  good  work ; 
only  two  or  three  months  ago  General  Schofield 
said  in  his  report  that  the  new  guns  we  are  mak- 
ing will  make  an  increase  in  the  number  of  ar- 
tillerists indispensable,  and  he  urged  the  forma- 
tion of  two  new  regiments  at  once.  Does  any  one 
expect  to  see  them  ? 

Admiral  Porter  has  been  hammering  away 
valiantly  for  years  at  Congressional  thick-heads 
for  the  neglect  of  the  navy,  but  it  was  not  until 
the  late  Samuel  J.  Tilden  gave  his  own  party  a 
blast  on  the  subject  did  we  begin  to  construct  a 


GENERAL  SCHOFIELD 
(Commander  of  the  Army). 


NATIONAL  DEFENCE.  107 

navy.  Even  now  there  is  persistent  halting; 
Congress,  regarding  the  navy,  is  like  the  girl  of 
a  certain  class  regarding  her  suitors — so  anxious 
to  get  the  very  best  that  she  is  in  danger  of  not- 
getting  any. 

Both  political  parties  seem  agreed  on  the  re- 
duction of  the  regular  army  to  the  smallest  pos- 
sible numerical  force.  While  the  Republicans 
were  in  power  some  officers  of  the  army  used  to 
hope  for  a  change  of  administration,  and  conse- 
quently change  of  party  at  the  head  of  affairs  so 
that  the  army  might  "have  a  show."  But  when 
the  Democrats  came  in  with  President  Cleveland, 
there  was  no  perceptible  difference,  except  that 
there  was  more  trouble  than  before  in  obtaining 
ammunition  with  which  to  salute  the  flag  morn- 
ing and  evening.  The  army,  small  as  its  maxi- 
mum strength  is  according  to  law,  has  not  been 
full  in  years,  and  there  are  grave  doubts  among 
some  of  the  higher  officers  of  the  army  as  to 
whether  it  can  be  made  full. 

Why  ?  Because  men  desert — run  away  at  a 
rate  unheard  of  in  the  army  of  any  other  nation. 
General  Schofield,  in  his  annual  report,  says 
there  were  two  thousand  four  hundred  and  thirty- 
six  desertions  last  year — more  than  ten  per  cent, 
of  the  entire  army  !  Fear  of  punishment  seems 
to  have  no  effect,  and  General  Schofield  felt 
obliged  to  recommend  that  a  full  half  of  each  en- 
listed man's  pay  shall  be  retained  until  the  end 


108  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

of  the  period  of  enlistment.  Isn't  this  a  humili- 
ating state  of  affairs  for  the  army  of  the  freest 
nation  in  the  world  ? 

-  There  must  be  serious  reason  for  this  anoma- 
lous condition  of  the  military  force.  Our  soldiers 
are  better  fed,  better  clothed,  and  far  better  paid 
than  those  of  any  other  country.  An  American 
soldier  receives,  outside  of  his  allowance  for  ra- 
tions and  clothing,  more  money  in  a  day  than  the 
British  soldier  can  show  to  his  credit  in  a  week. 
His  term  of  enlistment  is  shorter  and  his  possi- 
bilities of  duty  are  pleasanter,  or  should  seem  so 
to  men  of  intelligence.  Yet  to  enlist,  which  is 
the  first  suggestion  that  presents  itself  to  a  man 
out  of  work  in  a  foreign  country,  seems  to  be  the 
least  popular  in  the  United  States. 

Undoubtedly  one  reason  is,  that  among  the  in- 
ducements to  enlist,  we  are  entirely  lacking  in 
anything  that  approaches  the  glory  of  war.  Our 
only  enemies  are  Indians,  the  meanest,  most  sneak- 
ing, most  treacherous  foemen  that  any  civilized  na- 
tion is  fighting  at  the  present  time,  and  there  is  less 
glory  in  capturing  one  of  them  or  a  great  many 
of  them  than  in  any  taking  of  prisoners  in  ordi- 
nary war.  The  soldiers  of  other  countries  see 
at  least  a  great  deal  of  the  pomp  of  war,  if  very 
little  of  its  circumstance.  Showy  dresses,  fre- 
quent parades,  numerous  occasions  of  display, 
encampment  in  the  vicinity  of  large  cities  and 
towns,  freedom  to  go  about  and  spend  money 


NATIONAL  DEFENCE.  109 

among  civilized  people,  are  all  inducements  to 
men  to  join  and  remain  in  a  foreign  army  at  the 
present  time. 

But  what  inducement  is  offered  the  Ameri- 
can soldier  ?  He  is  put  in  a  camp  of  instruction 
as  soon  as  he  enlists,  and  sent  to  the  border  as 
soon  as  he  is  fit  for  service.  The  border  is  a  de- 
lightful country,  according  to  dime  novels,  but 
no  sober  man  with  his  eyes  open  finds  it  any- 
thing but  dull.  It  is  a  sparsely  settled  country, 
uninteresting  to  every  one  but  the  speculator  and 
hunter.  The  soldier  has  nothing  to  speculate 
with,  and  is  very  seldom  allowed  to  go  hunting. 
He  is  kept  within  narrow  bounds,  sees  almost  no 
one  but  his  own  officers  and  comrades,  has  noth- 
ing but  camp  duty  to  do,  except  when  on  long 
scouts  outside  camp  lines,  or,  still  more  unpleas- 
ant, when  detailed  for  police,  gardening,  or  other 
laborious  duties  within  the  camp.  It  naturally 
occurs  to  the  American  soldier  that  if  he  is  to 
work  eight  hours  a  day  in  building  houses  or 
stables,  or  digging  wells,  or  throwing  up  em- 
bankments, or  ploughing  the  soil,  or  hoeing  gar- 
den crops  for  the  benefit  of  the  post,  that  he 
might  as  well  be  doing  the  same  sort  of  work  in 
the  States  at  a  dollar  and  a  half  a  day,  and  have 
his  freedom  between  sunset  and  sunrise. 

Except  that  police  precautions  against  the  In- 
dians are  still  necessary,  the  only  excuse  that  any 
one,  except  the  military  officer,  seems  inclined  to 


110  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

discover  for  the  existence  of  our  army  at  all,  is 
that  we  should  have  a  nucleus  of  a  military  es- 
tablishment in  case  of  necessity.  But  what  is 
the  nucleus  worth  ?  Two  thousand  officers, 
among  whom  undoubtedly  are  a  number  of  the 
best  educated  soldiers  in  the  world,  constitute 
nearly  all  of  our  military  force  upon  whom  we 
could  confidently  rely  in  case  of  trouble.  The 
enlisted  man,  taking  him  as  an  average  charac- 
ter, is  practically  worthless  at  a  time  when  the 
enlargement  of  the  army  may  suddenly  become 
necessary.  In  France  or  Germany  officers  may 
at  any  time  be  selected  from  the  ranks.  Of 
course  the  systems  of  the  two  countries  differ 
greatly  from  ours.  Conscription  and  the  re- 
quirement that  every  adult  man  shall  serve  a 
portion  of  his  time  in  the  army,  makes  a  soldier 
of  every  one. 

But  is  it  not  rather  significant  that  the  better 
class  of  men,  to  whom  we  would  have  to  look  for 
additional  officers  in  case  of  the  necessity  of  sud- 
denly making  a  large  army,  are  seldom  found 
among  our  own  regulars  ?  Some  of  the  reasons 
for  this  deplorable  deficiency  of  valuable  material 
have  already  been  suggested.  There  is  nothing 
to  induce  a  man  to  enter  military  life,  and  the 
enlisted  man  is  too  frequently  used  as  a  common 
laborer. 

But  beside  this,  there  is  a  greater  grievance. 
It  is  that  ours  is  as  aristocratic  an  army  as  any 


NATIONAL   DEFENCE.  HI 

in  the  world,  and  that  the  distance  of  the  officers 
from  the  enlisted  men  is  so  great  as  to  be  simply 
immeasurable.  Volunteers  used  to  grumble  that 
some  of  their  officers  "  put  on  airs."  It  is 
scarcely  fair  to  say  that  regular  officers  put  on 
airs,  but  it  certainly  is  true  that  the  enlisted  man, 
as  a  rule,  is  generally  treated  by  his  superiors  as 
a  being  of  an  entirely  different  order.  Few  men 
rise  from  the  ranks.  Some  men  now  high  up  on 
regimental  rosters  used  to  be  private  soldiers,  and 
a  few  instances  of  the  kind  occur  nowadays,  but 
the  vacancies  are  too  few  to  attract  good  men  to 
the  ranks.  Let  any  one  live  at  a  military  post 
a  little  while  and  explain,  if  he  can,  how  any  one 
with  sufficient  self-respect  to  be  fit  for  military 
rank  of  any  kind  can  bring  himself  to  enlist  in 
the  United  States  army  at  all. 

All  this  could  be  changed,  without  increasing 
the  numerical  strength  of  the  army,  by  an  entire 
change  of  method  which  would  not  create  any 
friction,  disorganization  or  reorganization,  but 
which  nevertheless  would  encourage  a  better  class 
of  young  men  to  enlist — a  change  which,  indeed, 
would  secure  some  of  the  very  best  in  the  coun- 
try. An  army  so  small  as  ours  should  be  in  the 
highest  sense  a  military  school.  There  is  noth- 
ing to  prevent  it.  There  is  no  army  which  has 
more  leisure  at  its  disposal  or  officers  more  com- 
petent to  act  as  instructors.  No  army  in  the 
world  has  a  greater  percentage  of  highly  edu- 


112  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

cated  officers.  No  country  can  show  a  larger 
proportion  of  well-educated,  restless,  unem- 
ployed, aspiring  young  men.  There  is  no  en- 
gineering party  for  a  railroad,  a  mine,  a  river 
improvement  association,  a  drainage  company 
or  anything  else  requiring  applied  mathemati- 
cal and  mechanical  skill  but  can  secure  a  large 
staff  of  intelligent  young  men  at  an  expense 
not  exceeding  that  of  the  ordinary  soldier. 
These  men  generally  work  harder  and  fare  worse, 
regarding  personal  comfort,  than  the  meanest  of 
soldiers,  yet  they  are  not  only  entirely  satisfied 
with  their  chance,  but  elbow  each  other  fiercely  in 
their  desire  to  get  it. 

Suppose  that  instead  of  selecting  men  merely 
for  their  physical  quality  and  their  supposed 
capacity  for  obedience,  the  standard  of  admission 
to  the  ranks  of  the  army  should  be  as  high  as 
that  of  admission  to  West  Point.  Suppose  the 
Government  were  to  assure  the  people  that  the 
recruits  would  be  treated  as  well  as  the  cadets  at 
the  military  or  naval  academy ;  in  an  instant  the 
army  might  have  its  choice  from  a  hundred  thou- 
sand intelligent,  well-born,  well-bred,  honorable, 
aspiring  young  men.  As  already  said,  there  is 
no  trouble  in  getting  any  quantity  of  men  of  this 
class  to  go  out  under  the  control  of  engineers  for 
hard  and  unpleasant  duty.  The  inducement,  be- 
side the  financial  compensation,  is  that  they  will 
be  enabled  to  fit  themselves,  at  least  to  some  ex- 


NATIONAL   DEFENCE.  113 

tent,  for  the  class  of  work  which  their  superiors 
are  already  engaged  in.  They  are  close  observ- 
ers, earnest  students,  intelligent  assistants,  and 
the  beginning  of  many  an  engineer,  now  prom- 
inent, has  been  in  just  such  parties. 

The  United  States  army  might  as  well  be  one 
great  school  of  engineering  and  military  tactics. 
It  is  well  known  that  the  mere  company  drill, 
which  is  almost  all  the  drill  the  American  soldier 
is  ever  subjected  to,  thanks  to  the  distribution  of 
the  force  in  such  a  way  that  scarcely  any  regi- 
ment has  been  together  within  a  single  period  of 
enlistment  of  any  soldier  in  the  army,  requires 
very  little  time.     It  is  no  harder  to  become  pro- 
ficient in  than  that  of  the  militia  of  the  various 
States  and  cities.     Indeed,  with  company  drills 
once  a  week,  almost  any  militia  regiment  or  com- 
pany can  present  a  finer  appearance  upon  parade 
than  any  but  two  or  three  "show"  companies  of 
regulars.     The  remainder  of  military  life  consists 
in  guard  duty,  the  details  of  camp  duty  and  of 
applied  engineering,  which  each  man  can  learn 
as  rapidly  by  experience  as  an  equal  number  of 
assistants  in  a  construction  party  anywhere  else. 
It  is  known  well  enough  at  the  West  that  the 
construction  parties  of  railways  contain,  beside  a 
mass  of  common  laborers,  a  great  many  intelli- 
gent young  fellows  who  have  put  on  flannel  shirts 
and  cow-hide  boots,  have  taken  pick  and  shovel 
and  wheelbarrow,  not  so  much  for  the  wages  that 

8 


114  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

are  paid  them  as  for  what  they  are  learning  of 
the  art  of  railroad  building.  If  such  men  can 
put  up  with  the  treatment  ordinarily  accorded 
the  section  hands  of  a  railway  constructing  party, 
they  certainly  would  be  satisfied  with  the  man- 
ners of  officers  of  the  United  States  army. 

But — and  here  is  an  important  distinction — no 
railway  boss,  however  much  of  a  tyrant  he  may 
be,  would  dare  to  order  one  of  his  hands  to  cook 
his  supper  or  wait  at  his  table  or  groom  his  horse 
or  do  any  other  service  of  the  quality  commonly 
known  as  menial,  but  the  American  soldier  in  the 
regular  army  is  sometimes  obliged  to  regard  such 
demands  as  a  matter  of  course. 

A  plan  was  suggested  a  short  time  ago,  by  a 
military  officer  of  experience,  by  which  the  army 
might  be  reorganized  on  this  basis  without  any 
additional  expense  and  without  any  possibility 
of  friction.  Several  years  ago  Major  Sumner,  of 
the  regular  army,  himself  a  son  of  an  old  regu- 
lar of  national  fame,  suggested  a  similar  plan  re- 
garding a  single  branch  of  the  service — the  cav- 
alry. His  plan  was  to  select  from  among  the 
floating  population  of  wild  boys  of  the  different 
cities  a  number  of  the  more  intelligent,  and  or- 
ganize from  them  a  single  regiment  of  cavalry, 
to  be  carefully  trained  and  specially  educated, 
the  more  promising  and  deserving  recruits  to  be 
placed  in  the  line  of  promotion,  and  all  to  be  en- 
couraged to  look  to  possible  rank,  responsibility 


NATIONAL  DEFENCE.  115 

and  position  as  part  of  the  compensation  for  the 
necessary  restraint  to  which  they  might  be  sub- 
jected. This  restraint  could  by  no  possibility 
be  more  severe  and  continuous  than  that  of  West 
Point. 

All  that  has  been  said  about  the  army  applies 
with  equal  force  to  the  navy.  When  the  appren- 
tice system  was  formulated  there  was  hope  ex- 
pressed by  hundreds  of  officers  who  had  served 
in  one  branch  or  other  of  the  service  during 
the  late  civil  war,  that  it  might  afford  a  step- 
ping-stone to  ambitious  young  men  who  wished 
to  adopt  a  seafaring  career,  but  were  unable 
to  obtain  admission  to  the  naval  academy,  or  in 
any  other  way  to  gain  a  sufficient  education 
in  seamanship  and  gunnery,  which  are  the  two 
principal  requirements  of  the  American  naval 
officer.  But  if  any  number  of  naval  apprentices 
have  yet  reached  officers'  uniforms-  or  see  be- 
fore them  any  hope  of  such  advancement,  the 
country  -has  not  heard  of  it ;  neither  has  the 
naval  department.  The  boys  are  treated  kindly, 
well  fed,  well  clothed,  educated  to  a  certain  extent 
and  trained  by  officers  carefully  selected  for  their 
intelligence,  forbearance,  patience,  and  tact.  But 
has  any  one  seen  any  recommendation  either  to 
the  naval  department  or  to  members  of  Congress 
that  the  apprentice  ships  should  be  schools  for 
naval  officers  ? 

The  consequence  is  that  in  case  of  our  becom- 


116  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

ing  suddenly  involved  in  war  with  any  power  we 
would  be  in  as  bad  a  position  as  we  were  when 
the  civil  war  broke  out.  At  that  time  there  was 
a  sudden  demand  for  twenty  times  as  many 
trained  military  officers  as  the  regular  army  and 
the  graduating  class  at  West  Point  could  supply, 
and  the  demand  became  greater  every  month 
during  the  time  in  which  our  first  million  of  men 
were  enlisted.  The  scarcity  of  available  mate- 
rial was  so  deplorable  that  many  lieutenants  of 
regulars  were  called  to  the  command  of  volun- 
teer regiments.  Did  any  one  think  to  go  to  the 
ranks  of  the  regular  army  for  officers  ?  At  that 
time  there  were  in  the  army  thousands  of  ser- 
geants, any  one  of  whom,  had  he  been  in  the 
militia  in  a  corresponding  position,  would  have 
been  considered  amply  fit  to  organize,  drill,  and 
otherwise  care  for  a  company  of  a  hundred  men. 
But  there  were  no  such  demands,  and  had  they 
been  made  the  proper  men  would  not  have  been 
forthcoming  to  any  extent.  The  lack  was  not  of 
military  skill,  but  of  the  many  other  qualities 
which  go  to  the  make-up  of  a  soldier.  And  first 
among  these  is  a  high  degree  of  self-respect — a 
quality  which  has  never  been  nourished  among 
enlisted  men  of  the  regular  army  of  the  United 
States. 

The  real  trouble  is  lack  of  proper  public  spirit. 
During  a  recent  chat  with  Admiral  Porter,  that 


NATIONAL   DEFENCE.  117 

fine  old  sea-dog  and  fighter  bemoaned  the  lack 
of  any  proper  public  sense  of  caution. 

''  Why  don't  you  write  up  the  subject  your- 
self? "  I  asked.  " 

'  Write !  "  exclaimed  the  veteran,  in  his  ener- 
getic way ;  "  I've  almost  written  my  finger-nails 
off,  and  do  not  believe  it  has  done  a  particle  of 
good.  Nothing  would  please  me  more  than  to 
be  able  to  infuse  a  patriotic  spirit  into  the  Ameri- 
can people — make  them  feel  that  they  have  a 
flag  and  need  a  navy  to  protect  it.  I  wish  we 
had  some  of  the  energy  and  patriotism  exhibited 
by  our  forefathers,  for,  according  to  present  in- 
dications, we  will  one  day  be  humiliated  by  some 
fifth-rate  naval  power  which  will  come  to  our 
shores  and  teach  us  a  lesson.  No  reason  exists 
why  we  should  be  exempt  from  war,  for  we  are 
easily  excited,  and,  like  the  school-boy,  dare  any 
one  to  knock  the  chip  from  our  shoulder,  though 
not  able  to  fight." 

So  say  we  all  of  us — all  who  give  the  subject 
intelligent  thought. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

OUR   ENEMIES. 

WHEN  complaints  are  made  of  the  weakness 
of  our  army  and  our  national  defences  the  com- 
mon reply  is,  Who  is  going  to  war  with  us  ? 

If  a  man  were  to  neglect  to  put  locks  on  his 
doors  because  he  knew  of  no  one  who  would  like 
to  rob  him;  if  because  he  feels  well  he  would  neg- 
lect provision  for  his  family  after  his  death,  he 
would  be  contemptible  in  the  eyes  of  everybody. 
A  great  teacher,  a  highly  respected  authority  on 
human  affairs,  one  who  deprecated  strife  of  every 
kind,  once  said :  "  Know  this,  that  if  the  good 
man  of  the  house  had  known  in  what  watch  the 
thief  would  have  come,  he  would  have  watched, 
and  would  not  have  suffered  his  house  to  be 
broken  up." — St.  Matthew,  xxiv.  23. 

Of  course  this  was  said  of  men,  not  nations. 
But  what  are  nations  but  aggregated  men  ? 

Why  should  any  one  go  to  war  with  the  United 
States?  The  question  is  natural  enough,  but 
experience  shows  that  any  reason  is  sufficient  to 
him  who  wishes  to  pick  a  quarrel. 

But  siippose  we  do  not  want  to  fight  ?     That 

(118) 


OUR  ENEMIES.  119 

does  not  alter  the  case  if  some  one  else  wishes  to 
provoke  strife  for  any  purpose.  Neither  you  nor 
I  want  to  fight.  It  would  spoil  our  tempers  and 
clothes  and  perhaps  our  hands  and  faces.  If  any 
one  inj  ures  us  we  ought  to  call  the  police ;  if  any 
one  offers  us  an  insult  we  should  regard  him  with 
contempt.  Still,  admitting  all  this,  you  must  also 
admit  that  if  any  one  were  to  slap  either  of  us  in 
the  face  there  would  be  entertainment  for  the 
street  Arabs  in  about  a  minute. 

But  who  should  want  to  pick  a  quarrel  with 
the  United  States  ?  Any  one  who  wants  to  rob 
us.  Rob  ?  Yes  ;  robbery  has  been  the  principal 
incentive  to  war  ever  since  men  began  to  fight. 

But  foreign  nations  with  whom  we  are  now  at 
peace  are  not  thieves,  are  they  ?  Well,  that  de- 
pends upon  what  you  mean  by  nations.  If  you 
refer  to  the  people,  they  as  a  body  are  busily  en- 
gaged in  earning  their  living,  and  they  have  no 
taste  either  for  killing  or  being  killed.  But  a 
government  is  not  always  a  nation's  representa- 
tive. It  is  more  often  a  substitute,  with  self-as- 
sumed powers.  It  consists  of  individuals,  some- 
times a  single  individual.  But  whether  one  or 
many,  the  government,  in  distinction  from  the 
people,  is,  as  a  rule,  looking  out  for  Number  One, 
who  is  not  national,  but  personal. 

Well,  suppose  some  country  were  to  fall  out 
with  us  or  desire  to  rob  us,  as  you  put  it,  what 
then  ?  Why,  if  they  were  prepared  for  their 


120  CUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

work,  as  robbers  usually  are,  they  would  find  us 
entirely  at  their  mercy.  Yes,  I  know  all  about 
American  bravery  and  foresight  and  inventive 
faculty.  I  have  read  all  the  stories  of  the  various 
uprisings  of  the  American  people  against  home  or 
foreign  enemies  ;  nevertheless  the  United  States 
never  yet  took  part  in  a  war  for  which  at  the 
beginning  they  were  not  entirely  unprepared. 
They  never  were  less  prepared  than  at  the  pres- 
ent time. 

But  who  are  they  who  want  to  rob  us  ?  The 
answer  is  simple  enough.  Thieves  are  merely 
those  persons  who  need  more  than  they  can  hon- 
estly acquire  within  a  given  time,  and  who  make 
good  their  deficiency  by  seizing  the  property  of 
persons  who  are  not  sufficiently  on  guard  over 
their  own.  Bngland  is  almost  a  pauper  nation 
to-day.  Any  attempt  to  increase  any  form  of  tax 
in  Bngland  is  fought  by  the  entire  people.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  quote  Sidney  Smith,  on  the  tax- 
ations of  the  English,  which  have  been  materially 
increased  since  his  famous  witticism  was  written. 
No  man  imagfnes  that  the  English  national  debt 
can  ever  be  paid.  The  most  that  any  holder 
hopes  is  to  receive  his  interest  regularly.  Eng- 
land, nevertheless,  has  ambitions — she  calls  them 
aspirations — and  for  any  of  them  to  which  a  na- 
tional color  may  be  added  she  can  count  upon  the 
support  of  all  the  unthinking  portion  of  her  pop- 
ulation. If  this  is  as  large  as  that  of  the  United 


OUR   ENEMIES.  121 

States,  it  includes  probably  nine-tenths  of  all  the 
inhabitants.  England  has  a  better  navy  than 
we — who  haven't  any  to  speak  of — a  larger  army, 
more  incentives  before  her  soldiers  and  sailors, 
and  an  immense  class  of  dissatisfied,  restless, 
uncomfortable  people  whom  she  could  quickly 
pacify  by  appeals  to  national  honor  or  national 
vanity.  So,  for  this  and  a  number  of  other 
reasons,  which  will  occur  to  any  one  recalling 
the  condition  of  England,  a  war  with  the  United 
States  would  be  a  sunny-faced  blessing  to  Great 
Britain. 

Germany  is  just  as  poor  as  England,  and  no 
more  scrupulous,  though  some  of  my  Irish- 
American  readers  may  have  doubts  on  this  sub- 
ject. England  is  isolated  from  the  rest  of  the 
world  to  a  certain  extent  by  her  insular  position, 
consequently  she  can  occasionally  afford  to  laugh 
at  her  enemies.  To  wade  a  narrow  river  or  to 
walk  across  an  imaginary  line  is  sufficient  to 
bring  some  of  Germany's  enemies  into  her  coun- 
try. She  has  been  obliged  to  remain  on  guard 
against  foreign  foes  until  nearly  every  German 
is  by  nature  a  soldier,  and  from  the  soldier's  im- 
pulse to  that  of  the  robber  is  not  always  as  great 
a  distance  as  some  moralists  may  imagine. 

France  is  not  poor  in  this  world's  goods. 
There  is  a  greater  accumulation  of  wealth  in 
France  in  proportion  to  population  than  in  any 
other  continental  nation.  Nevertheless,  France 


122  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

is  terribly  discontented.  A  war  from  which,  a 
certainty  of  glory  might  be  premised  would  be 
of  immense  service  to  France  at  the  present  time, 
and  probably  as  much  longer  as  the  French  Re- 
public lasts.  There  is  constant  factional  fighting 
in  the  French  Assembly,  at  the  polls,  and  in  the 
press — factional  fighting  of  a  quality  which 
Americans  cannot  imagine  unless  they  are  stu- 
dents of  French  history  of  the  past  twenty-five 
years.  No  one  party  of  the  nation  is  sufficiently 
strong  to  disregard  its  combined  enemies.  Still 
less  is  any  one  party  honest  enough  to  trust  its 
enemies  for  fair  treatment,  or  to  accord  it.  A 
war  with  any  foreign  power  would  weld  French- 
men together  at  least  during  the  duration  of  the 
strife— that  would  mean  a  prolonged  lease  of  life 
for  the  republic.  After  that — well,  then  perhaps 
the  men  at  present  directing  public  affairs  might 
be  dead,  and  their  successors  would  probably  have 
similar  incentives  to  aggressive  war. 

But,  seriously,  when  we  begin  to  examine  the 
nations  with  regard  to  their  possible  causes  of 
complaint  against  the  United  States  and  their 
chances  of  success  in  an  armed  conflict  suddenly 
precipitated,  what  civilized  nation  is  there  that 
could  not  put  us  to  great  expense  of  money  and 
blood,  and  to  great  humiliation  of  the  national 
sense  of  honor  ?  Across  the  Pacific  is  China,  an 
Asiatic  heathen  power  which  it  is  diplomatic 
usage  to  regard  with  good-natured  forbearance 


OUR  ENEMIES.  123 

that  almost  reaches  contempt.  But  does  any 
American  ever  realize  that  we,  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  have  done  more  than  any  other 
country  to  provoke  the  hatred  of  China  and  cause 
the  people  to  regard  us  with  vengeful  feelings  ? 
Does  any  one  realize  that  the  reigning  dynasty 
of  China  at  present  is  of  Tartar  blood;  that 
many  of  the  trusted  officials  of  China  are  Tar- 
tars, that  the  army  contains  many  lively  Tar- 
tars ? 

'  Tartar  "  is  regarded  by  the  general  reader  as 
a  mere  race  expression,  indicating  some  people 
of  no  particular  consequence  who  inhabit  a  little 
of  the  more  uninteresting  part  of  Central  Asia. 
But  it  may  be  well  to  jog  the  reader's  memory 
with  the  fact  that  these  same  Tartars  have  within 
a  few  centuries  formed  the  Russian  empire,  geo- 
graphically one  of  the  largest  in  the  world. 
The  difference  of  nature  between  the  Turks  and 
the  Tartars  is  not  great,  yet  it  is  but  a  few  centu- 
ries ago  that  the  Turks,  a  lot  of  semi-savages,  en- 
tered Europe  and  threatened  at  least  one-half  of 
that  division  of  the  globe  for  a  long  period,  and 
were  so  successful  in  their  military  operations 
that  they  exacted  tribute  from  kings  and  cour- 
tesy even  from  the  Pope  himself,  although  they 
were  infidels  and  he  was  the  head  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  and  the  representative  of  Jesus 
Christ  upon  earth. 

China's  military  establishment  may  be  almost 


124  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

beneath  contempt,  for  it  is  almost  as  weak  as  our 
own,  nevertheless  China  could  obtain  an  unlim- 
ited number  of  men  at  very  short  notice,  and 
precipitate  them  upon  our  western  coast.  That 
Americans  defending  their  own  homes  would  not 
in  time  be  able  to  resist  any  invasion  would  be 
insulting  to  our  national  pride  to  imagine. 
Nevertheless  the  great  harm  worked  by  a  great 
war  is  not  always  through  the  final  result,  but  by 
the  preliminary  sufferings,  annoyances,  and  hu- 
miliations inflicted  upon  those  who  are  found  un- 
prepared for  an  assault.  In  every  large  city 
there  are  numerous  streets,  the  residents  of  which 
are  intelligent,  alert,  and  some  of  them  are  well 
armed,  but  what  does  all  this  amount  to  against 
the  burglar,  or  couple  or  trio  of  burglars,  who 
suddenly  descend  without  notice  upon  a  house  or 
a  block,  upon  thievish  exploits  intent  ? 

But  if  you  are  inclined  to  laugh  to  scorn  the 
idea  that  we  have  nothing  to  fear  from  China, 
what  do  you  say  of  Italy  ?  A  great  many  Ital- 
ians are  in  the  United  States  at  present.  Some 
have  come  as  permanent  residents ;  a  greater 
number,  so  the  Knights  of  Labor  say,  are  here 
on  contract  to  do  a  specified  amount  of  labor,  take 
their  money,  and  go  back  home  again.  They 
are  regarded  with  sentiments  much  like  those 
with  which  the  Californian  regards  the  Chinese. 
In  a  great  many  towns  they  are  merely  endured, 
in  some  they  are  abused.  The  United  States  has 


OUR  ENEMIES.  125 

gone  to  war,  or  threatened  war,  more  than  once 
on  account  of  bad  treatment  of  a  single  citizen  or 
alleged  citizen  of  the  United  States.  There  are 
men  still  living  who  can  well  remember  the  action 
of  Commodore  Ingraham,  of  our  navy,  in  the 
Martin  Koszta  case.  Ingrahain  threatened  to 
shell  an  Austrian  war  vessel  unless  Koszta  were 
immediately  delivered  on  board  his  ship,  and  the 
Austrian  empire,  governed  by  a  titular  descendant 
of  the  Caesars,  was  obliged  to  submit.  Well, 
Italy  has  an  army  ten  times  as  strong  as  ours 
and  a  navy  worth  at  least  a  thousand  times  as 
much  as  ours.  Italy  is  restive,  overtaxed,  needs 
some  outside  interest  to  distract  the  attention  of 
its  inhabitants  from  home  affairs.  It  dare  not 
meddle  with  any  of  its  European  neighbors,  but 
the  big  iron-clads  of  the  Italian  navy  could,  at  a 
given  order  from  the  admiralty,  lay  Boston,  New 
York  and  Philadelphia  under  contribution  or  in 
ashes  at  once.  Of  course,  we  could  wrhip  Italy 
afterwards ;  we  Americans  can  do  anything. 
But,  buncombe  aside,  isn't  it  our  policy  to  pre- 
vent occurrences  that  may  humiliate  us  in  the 
beginning,  no  matter  how  handsomely  we  might 
come  out  of  them  in  the  end  ? 

And  while  we  are  talking  about  possibilities  of 
attack  and  invasion,  does  any  one  forget  that  our 
sister  republics  of  Mexico  and  Chili  owe  us  very 
big  grudges,  about  which  any  one  can  learn  full 
particulars  by  visiting  either  of  those  countries 


126  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

with  letters  of  introduction  to  prominent  citizens  ? 
We  stole  California  from  Mexico ;  that  is  the 
plain  Bnglish  of  it,  although  it  does  not  appear 
in  our  school  histories.  Mexicans  know  it  if 
Americans  do  not.  Mexico  is  not  as  large  a 
nation  as  we ;  it  has  not  as  many  inhabitants 
nor  as  much  money ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  its 
people  have  abundant  leisure  in  which  to  indulge 
all  their  hatreds.  They  are  splendid  fighters, 
and,  were  we  ever  to  be  in  what  diplomatists  call 
a  tight  place,  Mexico  might  swing  her  small  but 
extremely  active  sword  into  the  balance  in  favor 
of  our  enemy,  and  humiliate  us  worse  than  we 
did  her  forty  years  ago. 

As  for  Chili,  in  consequence  of  the  bluster  to 
which  we  subjected  her  during  the  Garfield  ad- 
ministration, stopping  for  a  time  her  military 
operations  against  Peru  through  fear  of  the  United 
States,  a  fear  that  had  no  basis  whatever,  Chili 
has.  a  grudge  against  us.  She  is  small,  but  she 
is  rich.  She  is  on  the  Pacific  Ocean,  where  our 
navy  is  not.  Her  navy,  though  small,  is  strong. 
It  has  nothing  whatever  to  do,  and  should  it  some 
day  want  exercise,  it  could  make  things  very 
lively  for  the  city  of  San  Francisco,  and  by  the 
time  we  could  reach  there  with  either  soldiers  or 
ships  Chili  would  have  had  her  revenge.  We 
might  afterwards  arrange  for  "peace  with  honor," 
but  honor  that  costs  a  hundred  million  or  a 
thousand  million  dollars,  as  short  wars  frequently 


OUR  ENEMIES.  127 

do,  is  not  the  sort  of  honor  for  which  peace-loving 
Americans  are  longing. 

It  cannot  be  too  forcibly  impressed  upon  the 
American  mind  that  nations  go  to  war  for  pur- 
poses of  plunder.  They  call  it  conquest,  but  the 
end  is  the  same.  We  are  rich ;  every  other 
nation  of  the  world  is  poor.  We  are  unguarded ; 
every  other  nation  of  the  world  is  jealously 
guarded  at  every  point  of  approach.  We  invite 
attack  further  by  our  air  of  entire  security  and 
self-satisfaction.  The  slightest  intimation  that 
warlike  feeling  exists  in  any  other  nation  toward 
a  continental  or  South  American  or  even  Asiatic 
power  will  set  a  whole  country  by  the  ears,  but 
the  United  States  regards  all  such  talk  with  a 
mingling  of  conceit  and  contempt.  We  whipped 
England ;  we  consequently  assume  that  we  can 
whip  anybody. 

This  sort  of  talk  does  well  enough  for  civilians, 
but  soldiers  understand  that  it  is  all  poppy-cock 
gabble,  and  whenever  war  is  talked  about  our 
generals  and  admirals  and  prominent  staff  officers 
of  the  United  States  army  and  navy  have  a  great 
many  uneasy  nights.  They  know,  as  well  as  the 
corps  commanders  of  France  did  in  the  days  of 
the  last  empire,  that  we  are  not  ready  for  war, 
and,  still  more,  that  we  are  unready  to  a  degree 
that  is  simply  disgraceful.  They  know  that  were 
war  to  be  declared  against  us  by  any  power  in 
the  world,  excepting  perhaps  the  black  republics 


128  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

in  the  Caribbean  Sea,  that  we  would  be  at  disad- 
vantage from  the  first.  They  of  course  know 
that,  with  all  our  financial  and  mechanical  re- 
sources, we  probably  should  succeed  in  the  end. 
Our  country  has  a  means  of  defence  in  its  geo- 
graphical peculiarities,  which  give  an  immense 
centre,  unapproachable  except  by  foot-soldiers,  a 
centre  from  which  men,  means  and  munitions  of 
war  could  be  poured  in  continuous  stream  for 
years  without  apparently  any  sign  of  diminution 
or  weakness.  But  do  we  want  to  fight  a  war  to 
a  successful  end,  and  endure  the  humiliations 
which  must  be  imposed  upon  us  in  the  begin- 
ning? 

We  have  gone  through  this  sort  of  thing  once. 
Within  the  present  century  a  British  fleet  sailed 
up  the  Potomac  River,  laid  a  portion  of  our 
national  capital  in  ashes,  and  destroyed  the  prin- 
cipal buildings  and  archives  of  the  Government. 
We  came  out  of  the  war  victorious,  as  the  saying 
goes,  but  the  victory  did  not  restore  the  burned 
buildings  or  bring  a  single  written  paper  back 
from  the  ashes.  We  are  tremendous  when  we 
are  aroused;  oh,  everybody  knows  that,  but  why 
should  we  be  asleep  in  the  meantime  ?  We  have 
more  points  of  difference  at  the  present  time  with 
foreign  governments  than  either  France  or  Ger- 
many had  with  each  other  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Franco-Prussian  war.  It  is  true  that  none  of 
these  are  with  a  power  which  is  immediately 


OUR   ENEMIES.  129 

upon  our  boundary,  as  Germany  was  upon  that 
of  France,  though  an  exception  may  be  made 
regarding  Canada,  which,  in  the  event  of  any 
quarrel  of  ours  with  Great  Britain,  would  afford 
a  series  of  posts  and  harbors  from  which  men  in 
any  number  might  be  poured  into  our  northern 
States,  destroying  our  trade,  breaking  our  lines 
of  communication,  preventing  the  tilling  of  the 
soil,  suspending  manufacturing  operations,  and 
in  one  way  and  other  impoverishing  us  to  an 
extent  ten  times  greater  than  the  actual  cost  of 
warlike  operations  would  ever  indicate. 

How  are  we  to  provide  against  all  these  risks  ? 
The  answer  has  been  given  a  score  of  times  in 
the  past  ten  years  by  Secretaries  of  War  and  the 
Navy,  and  by  the  General  of  the  Army  and  the 
Admiral  of  the  Navy  in  their  annual  reports. 
Any  man  who  reads  such  documents  knows  that 
our  army  is  weak,  our  forts  are  antiquated,  our 
artillery  is  insufficient  to  cope  with  that  of  any 
modern  warlike  power.  Our  ports  are  defence- 
less, and  we  have  neither  soldiers,  militia,  ships, 
or  anything  else,  except  a  few  torpedo  experi- 
ments, with  which  to  meet  an  enemy  on"  short 
notice.  A  few  years  ago  there  was  a  clever 
sketch  published,  called  "The  End  of  New 
York,"  in  which  a  writer  who  is  also  an  engi- 
neer explained  how  a  second-class  Spanish  craft 
came  up  to  Sandy  Hook,  and  was  about  to 
bombard  New  York;  this  bombardment  and 


130  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

utter  destruction  was  only  prevented  by  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  single'  Chilian  vessel  of  greater 
force  and  with  guns  of  larger  calibre  than  the 
Spanish  fleet.  But  at  the  present  time  we  would 
not  be  able  to  hope  for  aid  even  from  the  Chil- 
ians, because  now  they  hate  us  worse  than  they 
hate  Spain,  and  so  do  all  the  other  South  Ameri- 
can republics. 

The  reason  for  the  deplorable  condition  of  our 
army  and  navy,  our  fortifications  and  our  artillery, 
is  a  hypocritical  rage  for  keeping  down  expenses. 
There  are  no  promising  jobs  nowadays  in  the 
improvement  of  our  military  and  naval  establish- 
ment. If  there  are,  Congressmen  cannot  agree 
as  to  how  to  divide  the  profits.  The  economy  of 
the  United  States  has  degenerated  into  such  con- 
temptible parsimony  that  recently  it  was  impos- 
sible for  some  military  posts  to  salute  the  flag 
morning  and  evening,  because  of  the  cost  of  am- 
munition for  firing  the  gun.  This  cost  amounted 
to  fifteen  cents  per  gun,  or,  as  they  say  it  at 
the  shooting  galleries,  two  shots  for  a  quarter. 
Army  officers  stormed,  civilians  protested,  news- 
papers made  fun  of  this  pretended  economy, 
nevertheless  the  flag  went  up  and  down  at 
numerous  posts  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  where 
there  were  most  people  to  know  about  it,  with- 
out salute.  There  have  been  no  powerful  guns 
mounted  at  any  fort  in  New  York  harbor  in 
years,  and  the  experiments  which  have  been  con- 


OUR  ENEMIES.  131 

ducted  ill  the  making  of  great  guns  at  home  have 
been  significant  simply  as  failures. 

At  present  there  is  a  spirit  in  the  departments 
at  Washington,  which  has  been  imparted  in  some 
degree  to  Congress,  in  favor  of  putting  ourselves 
in  a  position  to  be  secure  as  well  as  to  feel  secure. 
What  it  will  amount  to  remains  still  to  be  seen. 
We  have  built  a  good  ship  or  two  and  are  begin- 
ning to  build  others,  but  as  such  enterprises  de- 
pend upon  appropriations  made  year  after  year 
by  Congress,  and  as  an  appropriation  for  national 
defence  is  the  last  thing  in  the  world  with  which 
the  average  Congressman  concerns  himself,  it 
will  not  do  to  felicitate  ourselves  on  a  decided 
change  until  we  see  it  in  actual  operation.  At 
the  present  time  the  man  who  is  founding  an 
estate  and  a  home  for  his  family  for  generations 
to  come  will  do  well  to  get  as  far  back  from  the 
sea-coast  and  the  Canada  line  as  possible. 


CHAPTER  X. 

LABOR. 

LABORING  MEN — this  is  their  own  title  for 
themselves — do  not  work  any  harder  than  the 
remainder  of  their  fellow-beings.  But  those  who 
come  under  this  title  as  it  is  generally  under- 
stood have  some  grievances  that  must  be  removed 
before  several  million  men  can  transverse  the 
long  distance  between  dissatisfaction  and  com- 
fort. 

The  Labor  party,  so-called,  has  made  an  ass  of 
itself  a  great  many  times,  but  its  blunders  cannot 
change  the  fact  that  many  of  its  complaints  have 
a  great  deal  of  ground  to  stand  on.  The  farmer 
who  shoots  the  man  that  stole  his  horses  may  be 
a  murderer,  but  that  does  not  alter  the  fact  that 
his  horses,  upon  whose  work  depend  his  crops, 
his  family's  fate,  and  the  ownership  of  his  farm, 
have  been  stolen.  So,  when  a  railroad  strike 
prevents  thousands  of  travellers  not  owning  any 
railway  stock,  not  having  any  part  or  influence 
in  railway  management,  from  reaching  their  des- 
tination, the  strikers  may  be  absolute  scoundrels 
in  their  disregard  of  the  rights  of  their  fellow- 
(132) 


LABOR.  133 

men;  nevertheless  it  is  entirely  true  that  their 
own  wages  may  have  been  ground  down  to  starv- 
ation basis,  and  consequently  the  men  have  a 
right  to  complain. 

Labor  is  sure  to  be  imposed  upon  just  as  much 
as  the  laboring  class  will  endure  the  imposition. 
The  poorer  the  man  the  more  necessary  is  it  that 
he  shall  work  in  order  to  live.  This  being  so,  he 
is  sure  sooner  or  later  to  encounter  somebody 
who  will  take  advantage  of  him.  No  man  need 
be  a  scoundrel  in  order  to  drive  a  sharp  bargain 
if  he  gets  the  chance.  To  drive  a  sharp  bargain 
is  something  that  all  of  us  rather  pride  ourselves 
upon.  Probably  the  laboring  man  would  do  it 
himself  if  he  got  the  opportunity.  Nevertheless, 
the  purpose  and  aim  of  the  laboring  man  should 
be  to  be  so  "fixed"  that  no  one  can  catch  him  at 
a  disadvantage. 

Labor — that  is,  organized  labor,  must  be  in 
ceaseless  conflict  with  the  spirit  of  competition 
that  prevails  among  employers.  In  every  manu- 
facturing industry  that  admits  of  competition,  all 
the  way  from  making  door-mats  to  building 
houses  and  railroads,  men  try  by  underbidding 
one  another  to  get  business.  The  energy  of  a 
new  country  is  always  in  excess  of  its  capital  and 
also  of  its  demand.  This  is  very  encouraging  so 
far  as  the  outlook  for  energy  goes,  but  it  does 
work  a  great  many  wrongs  and  unpleasantnesses. 
In  business  it  does  not  take  long  to  reach  bed- 


134  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

rock  as  to  cost  of  raw  material.  After  that,  the 
strain  of  competition  must  come  entirely  upon 
labor,  and,  if  labor  does  not  resist,  it  must 
starve. 

Consequently  the  workingman  must  fight,  and 
fight  continually,  to  keep  from  being  reduced  to 
slavery  in  one  form  or  other.  The  word  slavery 
has  a  dreadful  sound,  but  there  are  ways  of 
muiHing  it  so  that  the  slave  himself  does  not 
always  see  himself  in  a  true  light. 

It  is  only  a  short  time  ago  that  New  England 
was  thrown  into  a  fervor  of  patriotic  indignation 
by  the  spectacle  presented  in  one  town  of  a  native 
bringing  a  laborer  in  chains  to  the  market-place 
to  be  sold.  The  owner  regarded  himself  as  en- 
tirely in  the  right,  and  explained  his  position 
very  distinctly.  He  had  obtained  his  vassal  on 
a  contract  that  a  certain  amount  of  labor  would 
be  given  for  a  specified  sum  of  money.  The  sum 
was  small ;  nevertheless  it  was  paid  and  accepted, 
and  the  man  afterward  imagined  that  he  could 
escape  from  the  terms  of  his  contract.  Conse- 
quently the  employer,  or  purchaser,  as  he  seemed 
to  consider  himself,  put  chains  upon  the  fellow, 
and  as  literally  brought  him  for  sale  as  any  slave 
was  ever  offered  in  any  slave-mart  in  the  world. 
The  beholders  rose  in  their  wrath,  dragged  both 
men  before  the  court,  the  slave  was  freed  and  the 
owner  was  fined. 

But  the  point  is  here :  this  was  simply  a  case 


LABOR.  135 

in  which  the  slave-dealer,  taking  advantage  of  an 
ignorant,  unthinking  man,  was  found  out.  How 
many  thousands  of  similar  cases  exist  in  the 
United  States  at  the  present  time  of  which  the 
public  know  nothing  ?  All  newspaper  men  at 
the  principal  sea-ports  know  that  people  come  to 
this  country  by  the  thousand  on  contracts  to  do 
a  certain  amount  of  labor  for  specified  prices. 
The  prices  may  be  below  the  cost  of  living,  never- 
theless the  contracts  hold  good  in  all  courts  of 
law,  and  the  men  are  obliged  to  do  their  duty. 
We  are  sorry  for  them,  but,  according  to  the 
practice  of  all  countries,  man  seems  to  be  made 
for  the  law  and  not  the  law  for  man. 

Do  I  really  mean  to  say  that  slavery  is  pos- 
sible in  the  United  States  ?  Why,  such  a  ques- 
tion is  behind  the  times,  for  slavery  practically 
exists.  What  else  but  slavery  can  you  call  the 
condition  of  some  of  the  coal-miners,  tanners  and 
factory  hands  of'  the  United  States  ?  Men  with 
their  wives  and  families  go  to  a  small  town  which 
practically  belongs  to  their  employer.  They  live 
in  houses  owned  by  their  employer,  buy  their 
household  supplies  at  stores  owned  by  their  em- 
ployer, take  their  pay  in  checks,  tickets  or  orders 
signed  by  their  employer,  and  get  the  remainder 
of  their  pay  when  their  employer  is  ready. 
Suppose  they  wish  to  improve  their  condition 
and  go  away ;  how  can  they  move  at  all  unless 
they  have  saved  some  money,  the  saving  of 


136  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

which,  by  a  peculiarity  well  understood  in  all 
such  localities,  is  simply  impossible  ? 

The  method  is  practically  that  of  South 
America.  In  some  of  our  sister  republics  the 
laboring  men  who  are  on  a  plantation  are  called 
a  consist  ado.  Men  are  obtained,  in  the  first  place, 
by  a  small  advance  of  money,  and  are  told  that 
they  can  obtain  additional  sums  at  such  times 
as  the}?-  may  need  them,  provided  the  money  is 
already  due  them  for  work  done.  But  these 
laborers  are  improvident.  When  they  wish  to 
spend  money,  the  employer  good-naturedly — so 
it  is  supposed — allows  them  to  draw  slightly  in 
advance,  and  by  the  laws  of  the  country  the 
laborer  can  never  leave  until  his  indebtedness  to 
the  employer  is  paid. 

In  some  of  the  South  American  republics 
there  are  consistados,  from  which  no  man  can 
escape  to  work  elsewhere  without  being  claimed 
and  returned  by  forms  very  similar  to  those 
which  prevailed  in  the  United  States  under  the 
old  fugitive  slave  law  in  slavery  times.  If  a 
workman  on  the  plantation  of  Don  Tomas  re- 
covers from  a  feast-day  celebration  in  a  state  of 
mind  which  leads  him  to  run  away  and  go  to  the 
plantation  of  Don  Jorge,  he  is  missed  at  roll-call, 
his  absence  is  reported  to  his  employer,  and 
straightway  a  lot  of  notes  are  sent  out  to  the 
owners  of  surrounding  estates  notifying  them  of 
the  runaway  and  requesting  them  to  return  him 


LABOR.  137 

to  his  employer,  who  will  pay  the  expenses  in- 
curred by  the  return.  The  request  is  always 
honored,  because  what  neighbor  knows  when 
some  member  of  his  own  consistado  may  disap- 
pear in  the  same  manner,  and  be,  of  course, 
slightly  in  debt  to  his  employer? 

The  same  state  of  affairs  prevails  practically 
in  a  number  of  our  mining  and  manufacturing 
regions.  Men  who  are  paid  only  once  a  month 
or  once  in  two  months  get  advances  from  their 
employers  in  the  shape  of  orders  for  family  sup- 
plies upon  stores  in  the  vicinity,  stores  probably 
owned  by  the  employer.  So  long  as  the  pur- 
chaser is  in  debt  he  may  be  stopped  if  he 
attempts  to  leave  the  country,  and  if  he  goes 
alone,  as  usually  he  must,  his  family  is  unable 
to  follow  him,  and,  still  more,  unable  to  retain  a 
home  and  get  food,  for  the  roof  which  shelters 
them  belongs  also  to  the  employer,  as  does  the 
only  store  which  gives  credit.  Only  a  few  years 
ago  I  met  in  the  State  of  New  York  a  tanner, 
who  was  said  to  be  one  of  the  ablest  men  in  his 
business,  who  told  -me  that  he  had  been  seven 
years  in  the  town  and  house  in  which  I  found  him, 
trying  to  work  out  his  indebtedness  to  his  em- 
ployer, so  as  to  take  his  family  somewhere  else 
where  they  could  have  better  society  and  where 
his  children  could  have  better  facilities  for  edu- 
cation, but  in  spite  of  all  efforts  at  economy  he 
was  still  in  debt  to  his  employer.  As  the  said 


138  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

employer  fixed  the  rate  of  wages,  the  tanner 
could  not  possibly  see  how  his  condition  would 
ever  be  otherwise. 

This  apparently  anomalous  feature  of  our 
civilization  may  appear  to  the  reader  to  be  acci- 
dental and  exceptional,  but  it  is  not.  In  the 
larger  cities  the  same  conditions  prevail  under 
different  forms.  There  are  a  great  many  shops 
in  New  York  and  other  cities  where  men  and 
women,  principally  the  latter,  work  at  starvation 
wages,  and  are  so  assisted  by  the  pretended  kind- 
ness of  their  employers  that  they  always  are  in 
debt  and  cannot  possibly  leave  without  fear  of 
suit  and  possibly  arrest.  The  so-called  slave 
marts  of  certain  districts  of  the  city  of  New 
York  on  Sundays  are  not  overdrawn  pictures, 
as  the  reading  public  may  imagine  them.  There 
are  hundreds  of  thousands  of  people  so  absolutely 
bound  to  their  present  employers  that  their  only 
method  of  escape  seems  to  be  death. 

Public  sentiment  does  not  countenance  slavery, 
though,  and  public  sentiment  is  all-powerful? 
The  will  of  the  people  is  the  law  of  the  land  ? 
Yes,  yes ;  that  sounds  very  well.  There  is  a 
good  deal  of  truth  in  it,  too,  but  the  truth  is  all 
on  one  side.  Public  sentiment  does  not  concern 
itself  with  anything  which  is  not  brought  closely 
to  its  attention.  Public  sentiment  in  the  United 
States  did  not  countenance  African  slavery  long 
after  the  Constitution  was  adopted,  nevertheless 


LABOR.  139 

the  institution  grew  and  flourished  until  it  almost 
destroyed  the  nation.  Public  sentiment  did  not 
approve  of  any  of  the  abuses  of  the  colored  race 
which  individual  overseers  and  owners  might  be 
mean  enough  to  indulge  in.  Nevertheless,  as  in 
everything  else,  the  public  acted  upon  the  old- 
fashioned  principle  of  not  interfering  in  other 
people's  business.  The  general  public  does  not 
handle  the  slaves,  still  less  does  the  general  pub- 
lic manage  the  employers.  It  hears  once  in  a 
while  of  abuses  and  cruelties,  and  thinks  these 
are  outrageous,  but  they  are  not  its  affair.  Each 
man  must  look  out  for  himself,  Heaven  helps 
those  who  help  themselves,  etcetera,  etcetera. 
There  are  a  good  many  ways  of  getting  rid  of 
moral  responsibility  in  this  world,  and  nearly 
everybody  is  mean  enough  to  take  advantage  of 
them  when  the  moral  responsibility  does  not  af- 
fect any  one  of  his  own  .family,  much  less  his 
own  pocket-book. 

But  can  the  condition  of  labor  be  improved  ? 
Yes,  if  labor  is  entirely  in  earnest  about  it. 
Labor's  principal  need  is  brains.  I  don't  mean 
they  must  increase  their  own  brains ;  but  in 
their  conflicts  with  employers  the  laboring  men 
should  be  led,  or  their  interests  should  be  man- 
aged, by  men  who  know  both  sides  of  the  ques- 
tion. Are  there  such  men  in  the  ranks  of  the 
laborers?  It  appears  not;  if  there  were,  such 
men  would  not  be  laborers  at  all.  How  many 


140  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

men  there  are  whose  hearts  have  been  strongly 
stirred  up  by  the  wrongs  endured  by  labor  in 
the  United  States,  who  have  longed  for  an  oppor- 
tunity to  assist  the  working  classes  with  their 
sympathy  and  counsel,  but  who  have  been  re- 
pelled again  and  again  by  the  utterly  unbusiness- 
like and  senseless  methods  of  the  very  men 
whom  they  desired  to  help !  During  the  strikes 
in  the  cotton  mills  of  New  England,  a  few  years 
ago,  it  was  remarked  by  a  millionaire,  a  man  of 
leisure,  who  desired  to  assist  the  operatives  with 
his  time,  his  money  and  his  legal  ability,  that 
could  he  have  such  a  faculty  of  working  as  the 
laboring  class  had  of  blundering  he  would  be 
the  greatest  man  who  ever  lived. 

There  is  no  objection,  on  the  part  of  Ameri- 
cans, to  workingmen  enjoying  all  proper  rights 
and  protection  under  the  law;  the  only  trouble 
is  in  unwise  methods  of  procedure.  President 
Cleveland  puts  the  whole  matter  in  a  nutshell  as 
follows : 

"  Under  our  form  of  government  the  value  of 
labor  as  an  element  of  national  prosperity  should 
be  distinctly  recognized,  and  the  welfare  of  the 
laboring  man  should  be  regarded  as  especially 
entitled  to  legislative  care.  In  a  country  which 
offers  to  all  its  citizens  the  highest  attainment  of 
social  and  political  distinction,  its  workingmen 
cannot  justly  or  safely  be  considered  as  irrev- 
ocably consigned  to  the  limits  of  a  class  and 


EX-PRESIDENT  CLEVELAND. 


LABOR.  141 

entitled  to  no  attention  and  allowed  no  protest 
against  neglect.  The  laboring  man,  bearing  in 
his  hand  an  indispensable  contribution  to  our 
growth  and  progress,  may  well  insist,  with  manly 
courage  and  as  a  right,  upon  the  same  recogni- 
tion from  those  who  make  our  laws  as  is  ac- 
corded to  any  other  citizen  having  a  valuable  in- 
terest in  charge ;  and  his  reasonable  demands 
should  be  met  in  such  a  spirit  of  appreciation  and 
fairness  as  to  induce  a  contented  and  patriotic 
co-operation  in  the  achievement  of  a  grand 
national  destiny.  While  the  real  interests  of 
labor  are  not  promoted  by  a  resort  to  threats  and 
violent  manifestations,  and  while  those  who, 
under  the  pretexts  of  an  advocacy  of  the  claims 
of  labor,  wantonly  attack  the  rights  of  capital, 
and  for  selfish  purposes  or  the  love  of  disorder 
sow  seeds  of  violence  and  discontent,  should 
neither  be  encouraged  nor  conciliated,  all  legis- 
lation on  the  sjibject  should  be  calmly  and  delib- 
erately undertaken,  with  no  purpose  of  satisfying 
unreasonable  demands  or  gaining  partisan  ad- 
vantage." 

The  press  of  the  United  States,  as  a  rule,  is 
on  the  side  of  abused  men  of  any  class,  not  ex- 
cepting laboring  men  who  strike  against  oppres- 
sion of  any  kind  or  against  reduced  compensa- 
tion, but  often  and  often  within  a  very  few  years, 
within  the  memory  of  men  who  are  still  young, 
the  press  has  been  obliged  by  common-sense 


142  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

alone  to  condemn  strikes  of  men  whose  condition 
they  regarded  as  deplorable,  but  whose  imme- 
diate purpose  was  absolutely  indefensible.  A 
business  man  in  a  position  which  he  does  not  en- 
tirely understand  seeks  the  counsel  of  a  lawyer 
or  of  some  one  who  fully  comprehends  the  case 
in  all  its  bearings.  The  laboring  man  seems  to 
think  such  a  course  unnecessary,  and  he  surfers 
the  consequences. 

Will  any  unions,  guilds,  Knights  of  Labor, 
help  the  workingmen  to  maintain  such  rights  as 
they  have  and  gain  such  as  they  need  ?  Yes,  if 
there  are  brains  behind  them.  "  In  union  is 
strength,"  but  strength  may  be  just  as  effective 
in  a  bad  sense  as  a  good  one,  and  the  more  of  it 
there  is  the  worse  will  be  the  showing  made  if 
the  cause  is  not  just.  If  workingmen  were  di- 
vine, all  their  past  efforts  would  have  done  a  great 
deal  of  good,  but  they  are  only  human,  and  there 
is  no  getting  away  from  the  fact  that  when  any  lot 
of  men  first  are  brought  together  through  sense 
of  wrong,  their  first  thought  is  revenge,  which 
never  meets  the  public's  views.  "  Vengeance  is 
mine,  saith  the  Lord,"  is  an  expression  from 
authority  so  high  that  we  are  obliged  to  treat  it 
with  respect,  and  it  is  certain  that  during  the 
present  generation  a  desire  for  vengeance  by  any 
one  or  for  any  reason  whatever  has  never  called 
forth  the  sympathy  of  the  public. 

Human  nature  is  a  very  weak  article.     No  one 


LABOR.  143 

knows  this  better  than  the  wise  man  who  has  a 
great  deal  of  it  himself;  so  in  all  quarrels  he  as- 
sumes that  there  is  a  great  deal  of  right  on  both 
sides  and  that  reconciliation  or  adjustment  must 
be  brought  about  by  conciliation  and  compromise. 
The  laboring  man  on  strike  is  not  given  to  either 
conciliation  or  compromise.  Whatever  his  wrongs 
may  be,  he  has  first  endured  them  for  a  long 
time  and  when  he  has  begun  to  complain  of  them 
his  complaints  have  never  been  made  directly, 
but  simply  are  voiced  among  his  fellows,  then  in- 
creased in  volume.  The  argument  on  the  other 
side  has  never  been  brought  to  his  attention,  and 
consequently  he  regards  himself  as  the  only  per- 
son wronged  and  almost  as  the  only  person  who 
has  any  interest  in  the  matter  in  any  way.  It 
never  occurs  to  him  that  his  employer,  like  nine- 
teen in  twenty  of  all  the  employers  of  the 
United  States,  is  doing  his  business  on  the  basis 
of  general  confidence  and  borrowed  capital,  and 
that  what  might  seem  fair  to  the  employer  as  an 
individual  may  be  utterly  impossible  when  de- 
manded of  the  employer  as  a  business  man. 

In  all  the  manufacturing  centres  outside  of 
large  cities  the  majority  of  employers  do  busi- 
ness with  money  borrowed  from  savings  banks 
which  have  obtained  this  money  by  deposits 
from  the  laboring  men  themselves.  An  injury 
done  to  one  is  an  injury  to  all.  If  labor  goes 
back  upon  the  employer,  the*  banks  also  must  go 


144  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

back  upon  him,  and  after  this  nothing  but  a  very 
wise  head  can  prevent  injury  to  both.  When 
upon  such  a  complication  there  comes  the  spirit 
of  revenge  nothing  but  a  special  interposition  of 
Providence  can  prevent  injury  for  everybody. 

One  fact  that  should  be  constantly  borne  in 
mind  is  that  trades  unions,  no  matter  what  their 
titular  name  may  be,  can  never  be  sure  of  sup- 
port from  men  in  the  same  trade  who  have  most 
sense  and  influence.  Protests,  whether  with 
words  or  blows,  are  always  made  by  the  discon- 
tented, but  the  better  class  of  workingmen  are 
not  of  that  variety.  They  either  have  better 
sense  than  their  associates  or  make  better  use  of 
the  sense  they  have,  so  they  are  in  positions  with 
which  they  are  fairly  contented.  Men  who  have 
been  "  inside  "  of  a  great  many  labor  movements 
are  no  less  vigorous  in  their  denunciation  of  the 
stupidity  of  labor  than  the  most  earnest  or  most 
hypocritical  employer  that  can  be  named.  They 
say  or  they  have  said  to  newspaper  men  whose 
business  it  has  been  to  interrogate  them  closely 
that  "if"  so-and-so  had  happened  the  results 
would  have  been  different,  but  A  or  B  or  C,  each 
of  whom  had  a  number  of  personal  retainers, 
thought  differently,  and  consequently  the  trouble 
was  prolonged.  Had  certain  other  men  in  the 
business  belonged  to  the  unions  or  guilds,  or 
whatever  associations  made  the  formal  protest 
against  wages  or  hdurs,  or  whatever  the  griev- 


'       LABOR.  145 

ances  might  have  been,  there  would  have  been  a 
chance  for  compromise,  or  arbitration,  or  some 
other  method  which  would  have  brought  the  con- 
flicting interests  into  harmony.  But  these  men 
"  stayed  out,"  as  the  saying  is.  They  were  men 
who  saw  opportunities  for  something  better  before 
them ;  consequently  they  did  not  intend  to  com- 
promise their  own  position  and  future  prospects 
by  taking  part  in  a  fight. 

Neither  can  the  unions  depend  upon  support 
from  mechanics  and  laborers  outside  of  the  large 
cities  and  of  villages  and  manufacturing  centres 
which  are  tributary  to  large  cities.  The  carpen- 
ter, mason  and  blacksmith  in  a  country  town 
feels  insulted  when  asked  to  organize  or  join  a 
trade  union.  He  does  not  feel  the  need  of  any 
protection.  He,  with  good  right,  considers  him- 
self as  smart  as  any  merchant  or  manufacturer 
or  capitalist  in  his  vicinity,  and  he  not  only  does 
not  see  the  need  of  any  protection  against  such 
people,  but  he  thinks  himself  smart  enough  to 
.overcome  them  all  in  matters  pertaining  to  his 
own  business.  Experience  proves  that  he  is 
right.  Such  a  man  slowly  but  surely  becomes  a 
proprietor,  and  thus  an  employer  himself.  The 
idea  that  he  is  always  to  be  a  laborer  is  extremely 
distasteful  to  him,  and  even  if  he  were  convinced 
that  such  were  to  be  the  fact  he  would  not  admit 
it.  He  would  feel  that  he  would  be  voluntarily 

taking  a  lower  level  by  making  any  such  admis- 
10 


146  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

sion.  The  natural  consequences  may  be  seen  by 
any  man  who  has  done  business  in  a  number  of 
small  towns  or  villages.  The  journeyman  work- 
man in  any  trade  whom  he  knew  ten  or  fifteen 
years  ago,  in  his  beginning,  is  probably  now  an 
employer  and  a  proprietor  himself.  Quite  pos- 
sibly he  has  "  struck  a  big  thing,"  as  the  saying 
goes,  and  has  money  of  his  own ;  his  sons  are 
being  as  well  educated,  his  daughters  as  well 
dressed,  as  those  of  any  of  his  neighbors,  and  his 
wife  associates  on  terms  of  equality  with  the 
families  of  the  judge  or  Congressman  or  whoso- 
ever else  the  local  magnate  may  be. 

So  far  as  labor  expects  to  be  helped  by  public 
sympathy,  which  is  always  on  the  side  of  the 
unfortunate  and  oppressed,  it  cuts  its  own  throat 
by  denying  the  right  of  any  laborer  to  work  at 
cheaper  rates  than  his  fellows.  The  abuses  and 
indignities  to  which  so-called  scabs  have  been 
subjected  have  alienated  public  "  sympathy " 
from  labor  movements  to  a  most  deplorable  de- 
gree. No  American,  not  even  the  millionaire,  is 
free  from  the  influence  of  competition  in  busi- 
ness, and  the  richest  are  sometimes  those  who 
suffer  the  most.  Competition  has  been  denned 
as  the  soul  of  business,  and  no  one  yet  has  been 
skilful  enough  to  deny  or  modify  the  assertion. 
If  employers  may  compete,  if  clerks,  teachers, 
salesmen,  lawyers,  physicians,  even  clergymen, 
may  compete  with  one  another  for  wages  or  com- 


LABOR.  147 

• 

pensation  for  their  services,  why  may  not  work- 
men ?  Can  any  one  imagine  a  body  of  clerks,  or 
dry-goods  salesmen,  or  lawyers,  forming  a  clique 
and  standing  at  dark  corners  with  clubs  and 
pistols  to  bully  other  men  of  their  own  profession 
into  demanding  certain  wages  on  penalty  of  re- 
fusing to  do  any  business  at  all  ? 

"  What  is  sauce  for  the  goose  is  sauce  for  the 
gander."  If  one  class  of  labor  is  entitled  to  take 
as  much  wages  as  it  may  get  for  such  services  as 
it  can  render,  why  should  not  another  be  en- 
titled to  the  same  privilege  ?  It  is  very  true  that 
the  laboring  man  often  sees  in  free  competition 
by  a  large  number  of  men  a  possibility  that  he 
shall  be  deprived  of  his  daily  occupation.  But 
whose  fault  is  it  ?  That  of  the  competitor  who 
will  work  for  lower  wages  or  of  the  man  who  has 
done  so  little  outside  of  his  daily  stint  of  labor 
as  to  be  obliged  to  stand  in  the  position  of  a 
highwayman  or  bully  toward  any  one  who  can 
do  the  same  work  for  less  money  than  he  ? 

Can  law  improve  the  condition  of  the  working- 
man  ?  Can  you  make  a  horse  drink  by  leading 
him  to  the  water?  The  law  has  done  a  great 
deal  for  the  laborers  in  many  States  by  giving 
workmen  a  first  lien  upon  the  results  of  their 
work,  but  it  cannot  and  will  not  compel  the  com- 
munity to  regard  the  inefficient  worker  as  the 
equal  of  the  good  one,  which  is  the  point  upon 
which  some  trade  unions  and  other  organizations 


148  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

seem  inclined  to  insist.  Neither  will  it  allow  the 
employee  to  manage  his  employer's  business. 
The  employer  may  occasionally  find  himself  "in 
a  hole,"  where  he  must  submit  to  any  terms  im- 
posed by  the  only  men  who  can  help  him  out, 
but  if  he  gets  in  any  such  fix  a  second  time  his 
bankers  and  customers  will  go  back  upon  him, 
after  which  he  will  have  no  use  for  labor  at  any 
price. 

.  Then  can  law  and  public  opinion  do  more  for 
laboring  men  than  they  have  done  ?  Not  much. 
Why  ?  Because  law  and  public  opinion  are  made 
by  people  who  themselves  work — people  who 
stand  just  as  much  of  this  world's  wear  and  tear 
as  any  common  dirt-shoveller,  to  say  nothing  of 
any  skilled  mechanic.  There  are  more  farmers 
than  mechanical  laborers,  and  they  work  longer 
hours,  but  how  often  do  they  demand  help  of  the 
law  or  the  public  ?  In  every  large  city  there  are 
tens  of  thousands  of  clerks  who  are  driven  to  their 
utmost  capacity  at  less  compensation  per  day 
than  the  common  laborer  receives.  It  has  been 
ascertained  that  a  bank-teller  who  recently  de- 
faulted was  getting  a  salary  of  only  six  dollars 
per  week,  though  he  had  long  hours  and  great 
responsibility. 

Does  not  underpaid  labor,  outside  the  mechan- 
ical arts,  frequently  improve  its  own  condition  ? 
Yes,  frequently.  Well,  how  ?  Why,  by  using 
its  brains.  If  it  were  to  insist  that  its  whole 


LABOR.  149 

duty  was  done  when  its  daily  work  was  over  the 
public  would  laugh  at  it.  The  clerk,  the  teacher, 
the  salesman  considers  it  his  duty  to  continually 
improve  himself  in  order  to  be  fit  for  such  oppor- 
tunities as  may  arise.  A  man '  in  any  one  of 
these  positions  who  wrould  spend  his  non-working 
hours  in  indulgence,  carelessness,  or,  worse  still, 
at  the  nearest  beer-shop,  would  be  considered  by 
his  employers  as  unfit  for  confidence  and  by  his 
associates  as  a  man  who  never  would  rise.  If 
such  men  are  so  badly  paid,  so  severely  worked, 
yet  are  skilful  enough  to  rise  from  the  low  finan- 
cial level  upon  which  their  work  places  them, 
why  should  not  the  laboring  class  in  general  rise 
in  the  same  manner  ?  It  is  useless  to  say  they 
cannot,  because  thousands  upon  thousands  have 
done  it  for  years.  It  has  already  been  said  that 
the  mechanics  of  a  few  years  ago  are  the  em- 
ployers and  managers  of  to-day.  A  great  deal 
more  might  be  said  in  the  same  direction,  for 
there  are  great  mills,  factories  and  industries  of 
the  United  States  to-day  controlled  by  men  who 
were  merely  poor  laborers  at  day  wages  a  few 
years  ago.  The  question  is  not  one  of  a  class  or 
of  an  industry ;  it  is  entirely  one  of  individual 
manhood,  and  the  man  stands  or  falls  by  him- 
self. The  more  he  depends  upon  an  association 
or  his  fellow-men  the  less  strength  there  is  in 
himself  to  resist  injury  or  to  make  his  way  up- 
ward. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

SELF-HELP   FOR   LABOR. 

IF  the  laboring  man  doesn't  want  to  be  in  a 
state  of  slavery,  he  must  refrain  from  putting 
himself  into  chains. 

He  is  a  good  deal  like  the  rest  of  us ;  he 
always  blames  somebody  else  for  his  condition. 
He  wont  be  able  to  get  out  of  trouble  until  he 
lays  most  of  the  blame  on  himself. 

If  a  man  feels  obliged  to  enter  into  business 
relations  with  a  lion  he  does  not  begin  by  put- 
ting his  head  into  the  animal's  mouth.  If  a 
workingman  begins  life  with  the  belief,  which 
seems  prevalent  now,  that  all  employers  will  en- 
slave a  man  if  they  can,  he  should  not  allow 
himself  to  be  in  such  condition  that  he  cannot 
take  care  of  himself.  Why,  even  a  dog  or  a  cat 
going  into  a  strange  room  spends  its  first 
moments  in  looking  around  to  see  how  it  can  get 
out  again  in  case  of  necessity. 

Employers  as  a  class  have  so  many  sins  to 
answer  for  that  there  will  be  lively  times  for 
them  on  judgment  day,  I  suppose,  but  that  is  no 
reason  why  the  employee  should  be  a  fool.  If  a 

(160) 


P.  M.  ARTHUR 

(Chairman  of  Brotherhood  of  Locomotive  Engineers). 


SELF-HELP   FOR   LABOR.  1S1 

man  sticks  a  knife  into  you,  and  is  sent  to  State's 
prison  for  it,  his  sentence  punishes  him,  but  it 
does  not  pay  your  doctor's  bill,  or  make  up  to 
you  what  you  have  lost  in  time  and  money 
while  you  have  been  lying  in  bed  under  the 
surgeon's  care. 

The  workingman  is  too  often  satisfied  to  do 
whatever  is  before  him  without  fitting  himself  to 
do  anything  else  in  case  of  accident  or  change 
of  business,  or  lack  of  demand,  or  any  one  of  the 
various  other  accidents  that  may  occur  to  disturb 
the  even  routine  of  his  life.  No  man  in  any 
other  line  of  business  dare  be  so  careless.  There 
are  clerks  and  book-keepers  and  men  in  the 
highest  mechanical  arts  who  are  very  good  in 
their  places,  but  who  never  fit  themselves  for 
anything  better  or  anything  else.  These  men 
are  slaves — literally.  Their  employers  know  it, 
if  the  slaves  themselves  don't.  No  matter  how 
honest  they  may  be,  no  matter  how  capable  they 
are  in  their  own  specialties,  these  are  the  men 
who  always  are  passed  over  when  promotions 
are  to  be  made,  or  when  men  are  to  be  selected 
for  higher  positions. 

By  a  strange  coincidence  these  are  also  the 
men  who  grumble  most  at  their  rate  of  pay, 
their  hours,  the  amount  of  work  they  have  to  do, 
and  the  manner  in  which  their  employers  treat 
them.  Many  of  them  are  such  good  fellows 
personally,  so  full  of  human  virtues  that  are  not 


152  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

specially  business  virtues,  that  they  excite  a 
great  deal  of  sympathy  among  their  acquaint- 
ances, but  in  the  case  of  any  acquaintance  who 
happens  also  to  be  an  employer  there  is  no 
sympathy  whatever. 

The  American  workingman,  above  all  others 
on  the  face  of  the  earth,  needs  to  take  this 
warning  to  heart,  for  one  result  of  competition 
has  been  the  subdivision  of  most  varieties  of 
mechanical  labor  to  a  degree  which  requires 
twenty  or  thirty  men  sometimes  to  complete  a 
bit  of  work  which  once  was  done  by  a  single  in- 
dividual. Undoubtedly  work  can  be  done 
cheaper  in  this  way,  and  both  capital  and  labor 
have  some  obligations  to  fulfil  toward  the  con- 
sumer, but  the  less  a  man  is  a  "  full-handed 
workman,"  which  means  that  he  can  do  all 
branches  of  the  business  in  which  he  is  en- 
gaged, the  more  necessary  it  is  for  him  to  be 
prepared  to  do  something  else  in  case  of  emer- 
gency. 

To  illustrate  :  there  was  a  time,  almost  within 
the  memory  of  the  present  generation,  when 
miniature  painting  was  the  most  profitable  divis- 
ion of  art  work  in  the  United  States.  A  fine 
miniature  would  bring  more  money  than  an  oil 
painting.  Suddenly  the  process  of  daguerreotyp- 
ingwas  discovered.  Then  came  the  ambrotypeand 
photograph,  and  other  cheap  methods  of  making 
accurate  likenesses,  and  as  a  consequence  minia- 


SELF-HELP   FOR    LABOR.  153 

ture  paintings  became  less  and  less  in  demand, 
and  the  few  members  of  the  profession  who  still 
survive  have  none  at  all  of  the  work  at  which 
they  once  were  famous.  Some  of  them  took  to 
drawing  on  wood,  others  went  into  oil  portraits, 
some  devoted  themselves  to  water-colors,  and 
others  went  into  mechanical  businesses  where  a 
good  and  accurate  eye  for  color  and  proportion 
commanded  good  pay.  But  if  the  miniature 
painters,  whose  misfortunes  were  greater  than 
those  of  any  class  of  common  laborers  now  com- 
plaining to  the  public,  had  insisted  that  the 
public  owed  them  a  living  and  they  were  going 
to  have  it,  and  that  Congress  should  make  laws 
enabling  them  to  get  a  living  out  of  their  busi- 
ness, they  would  have  been  laughed  to  scorn. 
The  miniature  painters  had  no  more  brains  than 
mechanics.  What  is  fair  for  one  is  fair  for 
another. 

One  of  the  first  things  that  the  young  labor- 
ing man  does  is  to  take  a  wife.  A  wife  is  a  de- 
sirable object  of  possession.  So  is  a  horse,  a 
yacht  or  a  handsome  house,  but  the  man  who 
would  load  himself  with  either  while  he  sees  no 
means  of  supporting  it  except  by  weekly  earn- 
ings which  might  be  stopped  at  short  notice  by 
any  one  of  a  dozen  accidents  to  life  or  business, 
would  be  regarded  as  a  fool.  Some  people  would 
call  him  a  scoundrel.  Yet  when  financially 
pushed  a  man  can  sell  a  horse  or  yacht,  and  get 


154  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

at  least  part  of  the  value  while  getting  rid  of 
responsibility.  He  cannot  sell  a  wife,  though, 
even  if  he  is  willing.  That  sort  of  business  has 
become  illegal.  Even  if  it  had  not,  the  proba- 
bilities are  that  a  wife,  taken  by  a  fellow  who  is 
so  reckless  as  to  marry  before  he  is  able  to 
properly  care  for  so  precious  and  complicated  a 
bit  of  property  as  a  woman,  would  not  be  in 
salable  condition. 

The  possession  of  a  wife  implies,  quite  im- 
plies, occasional  bits  of  income,  but  also  of  re- 
sponsibility, in  the  shape  of  children.  "  He  who 
has  wife  and  children  has  given  hostages  to 
fortune."  The  rich  man  knows  this  to  his  cost, 
though  he  may  get  enough  delight  out  of  the 
experience  to  pay  him  a  thousand  times  over. 
But  to  the  poor  man  dependent  upon  daily 
wages,  and  with  no  property  or  savings  to  fall 
back  upon,  a  family  is  often  fetters,  with  ball  and 
chain  to  boot.  Thank  God,  such  bonds  often 
feel  as  light  as  feathers  and  soft  as  silk,  but  these 
sensations  do  not  decrease  the  weight  or  drag- 
ging power  one  particle.  If  a  man  determines 
to  marry  while  he  has  nothing  to  marry  on,  let 
him  at  least  be  honest  with  himself,  tell  himself 
that  he  is  going  to  be  the  slave  of  whoever  em- 
ploys him,  and  blame  himself  instead  of  em- 
ployers, or  capital,  or  public  opinion  for  the  con- 
sequences. 

There  is  a  large  class  of  workingmen  who  do 


SELF-HELP  FOR   LABOR.  155 

not  seeiu  to  think  they  are  fit  for  anything  but 
what  they  are  doing.  Such  men  may  be  honest, 
cheerful,  obedient,  industrious,  painstaking  and 
obliging.  Well,  slaves  have  been  all  this  and 
more.  Such  men  are  bound  to  be  slaves.  Noth- 
ing that  trade  unions,  Knights  of  Labor,  law, 
religion  or  public  sentiment  can  do,  can  save 
them  from  practical  slavery. 

The  men  who  organized  any  State,  county  or 
town  in  this  Union  had  no  bigger  or  healthier 
brains  than  the  workingmen  of  to-day;  but  if 
each  of  them  had  imagined  he  could  do  but  one 
kind  of  work,  the  map  of  our  country  would  not 
look  as  it  does  now.  Any  of  these  men  con- 
sidered himself  equal  to  taking  a  hand  at  build- 
ing houses,  clearing  land,  shoeing  horses,  dig- 
ging post-holes,  following  the  plough,  planting 
corn,  tending  stock,  loading  steamboats,  acting 
as  deck-hand  of  a  flatboat,  carrying  mails,  or 
doing  whatever  else  had  to  be  done.  They 
blundered  terribly  at  times,  but  who  did  not  and 
who  does  not  ?  Bach  new  kind  of  work  they 
laid  their  hands  to  sharpened  their  wits  and 
widened  their  view  of  what  might  be  done  in  the 
way  of  getting  ahead  in  the  world.  That  is  the 
reason  why  trade  unions  do  not  flourish  in  new 
countries.  Men  there  have  been  taught  by  ex- 
perience to  take  care  of  themselves.  The  com- 
mon laborer  in  a  new  country  thinks  himself 
the  equal  of  the  judge,  the  doctor,  the  lawyer 


156  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

and  the  railway  president.  And  so  he  is,  so  far 
as  a  fair  impulse  and  a  fair  show  can  make  one 
man  equal  to  another  in  the  race  for  life. 

It  is  a  great  pity  that  representative  working- 
men  in  our  large  cities  cannot  once  in  a  while 
be  sent  on  a  tour  of  observation  by  their  respec- 
tive trade  societies.  It  is  the  custom  of  almost 
every  man  to  regard  every  one  in  his  own  busi- 
ness as  about  in  his  own  condition.  But  an  ob- 
serving man  going  outside  of  the  large  cities  and 
the  manufacturing  towns  will  quickly  be  un- 
deceived regarding  the  possibilities  and  future  of 
his  own  business,  or  of  himself,  or  of  any  of  his 
associates  who  have  any  spirit  in  them.  He 
may  find  men  of  his  own  specialty  doing  work 
longer  hours  per  day  and  for  less  money  than  he 
is  accustomed  to  get,  and  they  may  seem  to  be 
having  terribly  hard  times,  but  there  is  one 
significant  difference  between  the  two  classes : 
the  men  in  new  countries  never  grumble  at 
whatever  their  hard  times  may  be.  If  nature 
refuses  a  crop,  or  makes  a  river  overflow  and 
washes  away  a  town,  or  a  plague  of  locusts 
comes  upon  them,  they  can  grumble  quite  as 
badly  as  any  one  else.  But  so  far  as  they  have 
free  use  of  their  own  wits  and  their  own  hands, 
they  "  don't  ask  nothin'  of  nobody,"  to  use  their 
own  emphatic  expression. 

The  mechanic  who  works  all  day  in  the  newer 
countries  can  seldom  be  found  in  the  beer-shop 


SELF-HELP    FOR    LABOR.  157 

at  night.  He  drops  into  the  post-office,  or  the 
store,  or  the  office  of  the  justice  of  the  peace,  or 
wherever  he  sees  a  crowd  of  men,  or  knows  that 
men  will  congregate,  so  that  he  may  learn  what 
is  going  on.  He  will  change  his  business  six 
times  in  the  week,  and  then  be  guilty  of  doing 
it  twice  on  Sunday,  if  there  is  any  money  in  it. 
You  never  know  the  business  of  a  man  in  a  new 
country  for  more  than  a  week  at  a  time,  unless 
you  have  your  eye  on  him.  It  may  seem  awfully 
stupid  to  the  stranger,  but  among  people  where 
his  lot  is  cast  the  workingman  manages  to  keep 
his  end  up,  as  the  saying  is,  and  the  man  who 
attempts  to  depress  that  end  is  dealt  with  by  the 
individual  himself.  If  a  laboring  man  aggrieved 
in  any  of  the  newer  countries  were  to  go  to  his 
fellow-workmen  for  relief,  he  would  be  called 
either  a  fool  or  a  coward.  If  he  does  not  like 
what  he  is  doing  he  is  expected  to  try  something 
else,  just  as  every  one  else  in  the  country  does. 
The  banker  does  not  restrict  himself  to  one 
single  business,  or  one  subdivision  of  business. 
Neither  does  the  merchant,  or  the  manufacturer, 
or  any  of  the  few  farmers  who  have  become 
"  forehanded."  He  does  whatever  he  sees  most 
money  in,  and  he  has  blind  faith  in  his  ability  to 
do  it.  It  may  not  be  the  finest  variety  of 
finished  labor,  but  that  is  not  found  anywhere 
except  in  the  competitive  trades. 

It  should  not  need  any  argument  to  prove  all 


158  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

this.  There  seldom  is  a  great  strike  at  any 
manufacturing  centre  during  which  a  large  num 
ber  of  the  operatives  do  not  disappear.  Some  of 
them  find  work  elsewhere  in  their  own  specialty, 
but  the  oldest  inhabitant,  or  the  village  gossip,  01 
some  one  else  who  has  time  to  pay  close  atten- 
tion to  other  people's  business,  can  tell  you  that 
some  of  these  men  have  struck  out  for  them- 
selves in  some  other  direction,  and  they  very 
seldom  are  able  to  tell  yon  that  any  such  change 
of  business  has  brought  unfortunate  results.  It 
has  already  been  said  in  this  book  that  some  of 
the  great  industries  of  the  country  to-day  are 
managed  by  men  who  once  were  common 
laborers. 

However  ignorant  the  workingman  may  be  of 
the  fact,  or  however  willing  he  may  be  to  ignore 
it,  the  truth  is  that  the  workingman  half  a 
century  ago  was  a  great  deal  worse  off  than  his 
successors  to-day.  He  worked  longer  hours,  he 
got  smaller  pay — I  mean  smaller  pay  in  propor- 
tion to  the  purchasing  power  of  money,  and  his 
social  position  was  very  bad.  Even  the  Revolu- 
tionary war,  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
the  rights  of  man,  and  all  that  sort  of  thing, 
didn't  break  down  at  once  the  laws  of  caste  that 
had  come  to  us  from  the  old  country.  It  was 
not  so  very  long  ago  that  even  the  students  of 
Harvard  University  were  classified  according  to 
their  ancestry,  the  list  being  led  by  gentlemen, 


SELF-HELP   FOR   LABOR.  159 

which  was  followed  by  the  profession  and  then 
brought  up  by  the  general  assortment  of  what 
the  late  Mr.  Venus  called  "  humans  various." 

The  apprentice  was  not  only  household  servant 
as  well  as  work-boy  to  his  employer,  but  he  was 
kept  in  order  by  a  strap  or  a  club,  and  the  law 
not  only  could  give  him  no  redress  for  personal 
abuse,  but  it  recognized  the  right  of  the  em- 
ployer to  treat  his  boys  in  that  manner.  Boys 
brought  up  in  that  way  had  not  much  independ- 
ence when  they  became  men,  and  the  independent 
spirit  of  the  present  generation  was  a  thing 
almost  unknown  in  the  more  thickly  settled 
communities  at  that  time.  The  workingman  in 
that  day  was  more  religious  than  his  successors 
in  the  present  generation,  but  when  he  went  to 
church  he  sat  in  the  poorest  seats ;  generally  he 
sat  in  the  gallery.  When  he  was  out  of  work 
he  went  to  the  poor-house.  The  poor-house  was 
built  especially  for  people  of  his  kind.  Perhaps 
in  some  of  the  large  cities  workingmen  and 
their  families  go  to  the  poor-house  to-day,  but 
most  of  them  will  take  pains  to  go  to  another 
community  than  that  in  which  they  are  known 
before  they  allow  themselves  to  be  supported  in 
such  manner. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  cannot  afford 
at  any  price  to  support  a  class  which  proposes  to 
stay  in  one  spot,  making  no  endeavor  to  go 
further  or  go  higher.  No  grade  of  society  can 


160  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

afford  to  support  such  a  class.  The  class  itself 
cannot  afford  to  remain  in  any  such  position. 
Allusion  has  already  been  made  to  the  willing- 
ness of  men  of  the  present  generation  to  enslave 
their  fellow-men  when  they  get  special  oppor- 
tunity. The  methods  are  not  the  same  as  of  old, 
but  the  fact  is  the  same  and  the  practice  is 
steadily  fostered  by  the  inability  of  a  great 
number  of  men  and  women  to  impress  upon  the 
public  any  ability  to  be  anything  better  than 
slaves. 

The  workingman  may  take  such  consolation 
as  there  may  be  in  the  fact  that  this  rule  does 
not  apply  to  him  or  to  his  own  class  alone.  It 
exists  everywhere.  There  are  plenty  of  business 
houses  who  keep  their  men  under  their  power, 
body  and  soul,  by  a  custom,  apparently  founded 
on  good  nature,  of  lending  them  money  in 
excess  of  their  earnings.  It  is  a  modification  of 
the  South  American  consistado  plan,  to  which 
allusion  has  already  been  made,  and  it  works 
just  as  well  in  New  York  or  Chicago,  or  any 
other  manufacturing  centre,  as  it  does  in  South 
America.  A  man  who  will  not  spend  his  earn- 
ings in  advance  if  he  can  get  them  is  pretty  hard 
to  find.  If  this  were  not  so  there  would  be  very 
little  of  running  to  banks,  by  business  men,  for 
discounts  and  loans,  and  "  shaves."  The  im- 
pulse to  discount  the  future  is  almost  as  old  as 
the  world  itself.  It  dates  all  the  way  back  to 


SELF-HELP   FOR   LABOR.  1G1 

the  Garden  of  Eden,  when  our  first  parents 
began  to  devour  some  fruit  which  they  were  not 
yet  entitled  to. 

It  may  be  that  slavery  sometimes  is  pleasant. 
Indeed,  it  often  is.  In  spite  of  all  the  bad 
stories  that  were  told  about  the  treatment  of  the 
southern  blacks  during  old  slavery  days,  there 
were  a  great  many  plantations  from  which  the 
slaves  did  not  run  away,  even  after  they  heard 
of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  and  knew, 
from  what  they  heard  in  the  dining-room  and 
parlor,  that  the  South  was  on  its  last  legs,  and 
that  the  good  old  times  could  not  possibly  come 
back  again.  There  were  many  plantations  found 
by  the  Union  army,  during  its  tramps  through 
certain  States,  which  the  masters  and  the  mis- 
tresses had  abandoned,  but  to  which  the  colored 
people  clung  closely,  from  old  association  alone, 
and  were  found  there  when  the  owners  came 
back  again.  Slavery  exists  still  in  many  por- 
tions of  the  world,  principally  eastern  countries, 
and  Europeans  of  high  character  and  close  ob- 
servation have  declared  that  the  condition  does 
not  inflict  cruel  or  unfair  burdens  upon  the  en- 
slaved. 

But  this  is  a  free  country.  All  our  institu- 
tions are  based  upon  the  theory  that  one  man  is 
just  as  good  as  another,  and  not  only  so,  but 
that  he  ought  to  be  expected  to  be  as  good  as  his 
neighbors,  and  that  as  soon  as  he  ceases  to  be  ail 
11 


162  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

independent  being,  the  master  of  his  own  time 
and  of  his  own  family,  including  all  their  in- 
terests, he  is  not  equal  to  his  duties  and  respon- 
sibilities as  a  citizen.  We  hear  a  great  deal 
about  votes  purchased  for  money  and  whiskey 
and  offers  of  office  ;  but  does  any  one  realize  how 
entirely  the  political  status  of  certain  States  and 
counties  and  towns  depends  upon  the  opinions  of 
even  the  temporary  whims  of  certain  large  em- 
ployers ?  There  are  thousands  of  men  in  each 
of  at  least  three  New  England  States  who  would 
not  dare  vote  any  way  than  they  are  requested 
to  do  by  their  employers.  Fac-siuiiles  of  cards 
and  written  notices  have  been  printed  to  show 
that  in  certain  mills  the  proprietors  announced 
that  their  operatives  were  expected  to  vote  for 
certain  candidates  which  were  named.  If  an 
American,  an  inhabitant  of  the  freest  country  of 
the  world,  cannot  vote  as  he  pleases,  what  does 
his  personal  liberty  amount  to  ?  Even  a  tramp 
has  a  right  to  his  own  vote,  or  to  sell  it  to  the 
highest  bidder,  if  he  has  been  long  enough  a 
resident  of  the  locality  in  which  he  attempts  to 
deposit  his  ballot.  There  are  slaves  in  banks 
and  mercantile  houses  as  well  as  in  manufactur- 
ing establishments,  so  the  laboring  man  need  not 
feel  hurt  at  the  intimation  that  he  is  in  danger 
of  being  subjected  to  an  involuntary  servitude 
which  not  only  will  control  his  time,  but  also  his 
mind,  to  such  an  extent  that  he  is  not  a  free 


SELF-HRI.P    FOR   LABOR.  163 

agent  in  anything  regarding  moral  opinion  or  his 
duties  as  a  citizen. 

The  principal  outlet  for  the  energies  of  the 
workingman  at  the  present  time  is  undoubtedly 
in  the  newer  parts  of  the  country.  There  is 
where  he  is  almost  sure  to  be  found  if  he  is  a 
man  of  proper  spirit  and  has  not  handicapped 
himself  so  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  reach  there. 
This  outlet  will  be  practicable  for  at  least  a  gen- 
eration to  come.  We  hear  a  great  deal  about  the 
new  countries  being  filled  up  and  there  being  no 
chance  for  a  man  any  longer,  but  some  thou- 
sands of  men  who  have  footed  it  half-way  across 
the  continent  can  tell  us  differently,  and  show 
substantial  proofs  that  they  are  right. 

The  man  who  resolves  not  to  take  any  heavy 
responsibilities  upon  his  time  or  pocket  until  he 
considers  himself  fairly  settled  in  life,  can 
alwa}^s  make  his  way  to  the  new  country,  and 
there  in  no  part  of  this  land,  although  it  is  not 
a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,  in  which  he 
cannot  find  something  to  do.  I  once  was  made 
curious,  by  the  conversation  of  a  number  of 
workingmen  in  a  large  pork-packing  establish- 
ment in  a  small  town  in  the  West,  to  know  where 
they  had  come  from,  and  what  their  previous 
occupation  had  been,  and  among  twenty-seven 
men  I  found  twenty-one  businesses  and  profes- 
sions represented,  not  one  of  which  was  pork- 
packing.  Nevertheless  each  of  these  men  was 


164  OUR   COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

earning  two  dollars  and  a  half  a  day,  and  keep- 
ing an  eye  open  for  something  better,  which  I 
am  happy  to  say  I  saw  some  of  them  realize 
within  a  few  months.  At  that  very  time  at  least 
one-half  of  the  trades  which  these  men  had 
originally  learned,  and  in  which  they  were  all 
supposed  to  be  .experts,  were  languishing  in  the 
East,  and  a  great  number  of  those  engaged  in 
them  were  in  that  desperate  condition  of  mind 
that  in  other  countries  has  often  precipitated 
riots  and  brought  about  bloodshed  and  prolonged 
disorder. 

But — let  workingmen  note  the  distinction- 
only  two  of  these  twenty-seven  men  were  already 
married.  What  they  had  earned  already  was 
their  own.  They  were  able  to  move  about  from 
place  to  place  until  they  found  a  satisfactory 
opening  in  life.  Some  of  them  afterward  went 
to  the  dogs.  It  is  impossible  to  find  any  lot  of 
men  together  by  chance  in  which  there  will  not 
be  some  incompetents  and  some  who,  through 
one  failing  or  other,  would  be  their  own  enemies 
if  they  were  in  the  best  of  hands.  There  were 
only  twelve  men  in  the  first  company  of  assist- 
ants organized  by  Jesus  Christ,  and  one  of  them 
turned  out  to  be  a  scoundrel  in  spite  of  the  ex- 
cellent company  in  which  he  found  himself. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

ONE  MAN'S  AS  GOOD  AS  ANOTHER. 

BELIEF  in  the  principle  of  equality  is  an  im- 
pulse which  has  made  America  the  greatest  and 
most  prosperous  nation  of  the  earth. 

It  is  supposed  to  have  begun  with  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence,  but  this  is  a  mistake.  If 
it  had  not  already  taken  possession  of  a  majority 
of  the  people,  the  Declaration  could  not  have 
been  adopted.  The  idea  of  equality  comes  un- 
bidden in  all  lands  where  men  are  so  scarce,  and 
work  so  abundant,  that  each  man  must  take  a 
hand  at  anything  and  everything.  The  results 
disarrange  all  previous  gradations  of  rank  and 
station.  The  man  at  the  bottom  frequently 
reaches  the  top  through  his  own  unaided  merit. 
Such  upturnings  and  overturnings  were  so  fre- 
quent in  early  colonial  days,  in  this  country,  that 
by  the  time  the  revolutionary  period  was  reached, 
the  principal  opponents  of  the  equality  idea  were 
men  who  had  nothing  but  inherited  rank  and 
station  to  fall  back  upon. 

Now-a-days  we   don't   believe   in  equality  as 
fully  as  Jefferson  did  when  he  wrote  the  Decla- 

(105) 


166  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

ration  of  Independence.  But  we  meet  him  half- 
way. We  don't  admit  that  all  men  are  our 
equals,  but  we  are  sure,  each  for  himself,  that  we 
are  the  equals  of  anybody  else. 

It  is  a  beneficent  belief.  If  it  is  a  humbug, 
then  blessed  be  humbug.  Give  us  some  more 
of  the  same  kind.  Many  an  intelligent  "man  in 
Europe,  who  is  above  the  middle  class,  wishes 
his  sons  and  daughters  might  be  started  in  life 
with  the  belief  that  they  were  the  equals  of  any 
other  people,  and  that  through  mere  intelligence 
they  could  become  the  associates  of  the  greatest 
and  best  people.  This  feeling  is  the  birthright 
of  each  American  boy  and  girl.  Some  of  us 
lose  sight  of  it  from  the  start.  Others  sell  it  for 
a  mess  of  pottage — which  now-a-days  is  generally 
spelled  whiskey — or  for  something  less  tempting ; 
nevertheless  the  feeling  is  there  for  those  who 
want  to  use  it.  That  is  not  all.  It  cannot  be 
suppressed  in  those  who  know  how  to  avail  them- 
selves of  it. 

For  instance,  Sam  Adams,  as  he  was  called 
more  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  was  the  son  of  a 
poor  shoemaker  in  Boston.  Shoemakers  put  on 
very  little  style  in  those  days,  nevertheless 
George  the  Third  and  his  cabinet  were  more 
afraid  of  the  shoemaker's  son  than  of  any  Vir- 
ginia cavalier's  descendant. 

Speaking  of  Virginia,  some  of  you  probably 
have  read  how  indignant  some  proud,  fussy, 


ONE    MAN'S   AS  GOOD   AS   ANOTHER.  167 

stupid  old  F.  F.  Vs.  were  in  revolutionary  days 
because  of  the  prominence  suddenly  attained  by 
Patrick  Henry  in  national  politics.  Patrick  was 
not  of  as  high  extraction  as  they,  so  they  said, 
and  he  not  only  had  kept  store,  but  he  had  failed 
to  make  the  business  go.  They  had  to  stand 
him,  though :  they  could  not  get  along  without 
him.  There  were  not  brains  among  all  of  them 
together  to  take  his  place. 

'  Times  aren't  what  they  used  to  be."  They 
aren't,  eh  ?  No ;  the  man  of  brains  and  char- 
acter cannot  get  into  society  or  reach  national 
prominence  unless  he  has  money  and  influence 
to  back  him. 

Nonsense;  the  most  exclusive  society  in  America 
is  supposed  to  be  the  famous  Four  Hundred  in 
New  York.  Yet  some  of  these  have  but  little 
money,  and  others  are  but  a  generation  or  two 
removed  from  tradesmen  as  common  as  any  you 
may  meet  to-day.  Most  of  the  four  hundred  are 
illustrations  of  the  working  force  there  is  in  the 
idea  of  equality.  A  few  snobs  may  have  crept 
in  by  accident,  or  been  dragged  in  by  ancestral 
apron-strings  or  button-holes,  but  the  further  you 
look  into  it,  the  humbler  the  stock  you  find  they 
sprang  from. 

New  York's  four  hundred  is  not  the  only 
fastidious  social  circle  in  the  United  States. 
There  is  a  fine  social  set  in  each  city  and  large 
town.  One  American,  whom  it  would  be  dis- 


168  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

courteous,  to  name,  in  view  of  what  follows,  is  in 
demand  by  the  best  people  of  every  American 
town  he  visits,  for  all  his  instincts  are  high,  his 
manners  are  delightful,  and  his  conversation 
charming.  He  is  not  rich,  he  is  not  yet  old,  yet 
during  a  part  of  his  youth  he  was  so  poor  that 
his  customary  coat  which  he  wore  on  his  father's 
farm  was  a  thick  grain-bag  containing  a  hole 
through  which  to  thrust  his  head,  and  a  hole  at 
each  side  for  his  arms,  and  a  slit  in  front.  But- 
tons and  button-holes  would  have  made  the  gar- 
ment more  convenient,  but  the  family  could  not 
afford  buttons.  Yet  this  man  has  made  his  way 
upwards  by  efforts  unaided  by  any  one  but  him- 
self. He  set  a  certain  standard  before  him  and 
resolutely  struggled  toward  it.  After  several 
years  of  endeavor,  the  end  seemed  as  far  off  as 
ever.  Yet  the  man's  endeavors,  instead  of  weaken- 
ing, were  only  strengthened  by  contemplation  of 
the  work  which  still  remained  before  him.  When 
he  became  prominent  he  did  it  very  suddenly, 
and  people  who  knew  of  him  only  by  his  name 
and  the  work  he  had  done  talked  of  him  as  a 
very  lucky  fellow.  But  he  knows,  as  do  all  of 
his  more  intimate  acquaintances,  that  everything 
he  has  and  is  is  due  to  his  own  intelligence  and 
energy. 

With  this  spirit  of  equality  and  a  realization 
of  its  possibilities,  there  are  no  necessary  limits 
to  the  aspirations  of  the  American.  All  he 


ONE   MAN'S   AS   GOOD   AS   ANOTHER.  169 

wants  is  a  start,  and  the  spirit  generally  makes 
him  wide  awake  until  he  finds  a  start.  Sixty 
years  ago  a  poor  farmer's  boy  in  Western  New 
York  determined  to  become  a  great  manufacturer 
if  possible,  but  he  had  sense  enough  to  realize  that 
such  a  career  would  require  capital,  so  he  set 
himself  to  work  to  begin  an  accumulation  of 
money.  His  father  could  not  help  him,  for  he 
had  not  as  much  money  as  the  family  interests 
required.  So  the  boy's  first  business  operation 
was  to  act  as  barber  for  his  classmates  at  the 
school-house  at  the  cross-roads.  He  cut  hair 
before  school  hours,  and  at  the  noon-day  inter- 
mission, at  one  cent  per  head.  It  was  poor  pay ; 
but,  as  he  afterwards  admitted,  it  was  also  very 
poor  hair-cutting.  At  the  end  of  an  entire  school 
term  he  had  accumulated  exactly  thirty  cents. 
The  "  increment,"  not  "  unearned,"  when  he 
died,  was,  as  near  as  can  be  estimated  by  the 
executors  at  present,  one  million  dollars  upon 
each  cent  of  the  original  capital. 

What  the  impulse  born  of  the  spirit  of  equality 
has  done  toward  the  higher  education  of  people 
in  the  United  States  is  known  to  all  college-bred 
men,  and  particularly  to  men  of  college  faculties. 
A  poor  boy  in  England  never  dreams  of  obtaining 
the  higher  education,  as  it  is  called,  for  he  does 
not  know  what  he  would  do  with  it  if  he  had  it. 
The  American  boy  knows  though,  and  if  he  sets 
his  mind  on  going  to  college  he  gets  there.  He 


170  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

does  not  always  satisfy  Himself  with  institutions 
nearest  home  either.  He  wants  the  best.  This, 
by  the  way,  is  a  characteristic  American  want 
and  demand.  So  the  poor  boy  is  frequently 
found  at  Yale  and  Harvard.  How  he  gets  there 
nobody  but  himself  can  tell,  and  between  modesty 
and  a  little  bit  of  false  shame  he  himself  says 
very  little  about  it.  But  I  know  of  one  of  these 
fellows  who  subsisted  a  month  at  Yale  College 
on  forty  cents  worth  of  corn-meal,  and  boasted 
that  he  never  went  to  bed  hungry  either. 

As  for  public  life  and  the  learned  professions, 
the  American  who  does  not  get  into  them  if  he 
wants  to  cannot  blame  poverty  or  insignificance. 
He  is  prevented  only  by  lack  of  energy  or  lack 
of  brains,  the  latter  seldom  being  perceptible. 
The  proportion  of  men  who  are  born  rich  and 
who  are  well  educated  among  men  now  prom- 
inent in  public  and  social  life  is  so  small  as  to  be 
almost  insignificant,  although  many  of  the  best- 
known  names  in  business  and  politics  are  those 
of  men  young  enough  to  have  been  brought  up 
since  the  sudden  accession  of  wealth  which  began 
during  our  late  civil  war  and  which  has  ever 
since  continued  at  a  marvellous  rapidity.  A 
number  of  newspaper-men  who  have  spent  much 
time  in  Washington  can  give  many  good  stories, 
which  they  obtained  from  first  hands,  of  the  trials 
and  struggles  during  youth  of  men  who  are  now 
prominent  in  both  branches  of  the  national  legis- 


ONE    MAX'S   AS   GOOD    AS   ANOTHER.  171 

lature  and  in  other  high  official  positions.  I 
have  already  alluded  to  a  judge  of  very  high 
standing  in  his  profession  whose  parents  were  so 
poor  that  they  could  not  even  afford  to  give  him 
the  date  of  his  own  birth.  These  men,  now  that 
they  are  successful,  do  not  object  to  telling  of  the 
steps  by  which  they  first  began  to  climb,  and  if 
similar  stories  were  perpetrated  by  novelists  they 
would  be  declared  utterly  improbable.  Old  Simon 
Cameron,  who  owns  an  immense  amount  of  prop- 
erty, and  is  suspected  of  owning  the  entire  con- 
science of  Pennsylvania  besides,  often  tells  of  one 
preliminary  step  toward  his  own  education  when 
he  and  his  family  saved  money  for  months  to 
accumulate  the  price  of  one  single  text-book, 
which,  when  he  came  to  purchase  it,  cost  a  few 
cents  more  than  he  had  in  his  pocket.  The 
American  spirit  of  getting  along,  of  fighting 
one's  way  along  in  the  world,  arouses  so  much 
sympathy  among  one's  fellow-men,  that  Simon 
was  helped  out  by  the  merchant  from  whom  he 
purchased  the  book,  and  it  is  said  that  no  such 
magnificent  interest  was  ever  paid  on  any  invest- 
ment in  the  United  States  as  the  ex-Senator,  ex- 
Cabinet  officer,  and  ex-political  manager  of  the 
Keystone  State  gratefully  paid  to  that  deserving 
merchant. 

Indeed,  in  all  parts  of  the  country  that  are  not 
yet  grown,  the  spirit  of  equality  and  the  conse- 
quent possibility  of  high  attainment  from  small 


172  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

beginnings  is  so  fully  realized  and  sympathized 
with  that  any  deserving  youth  finds  a  helping 
hand,  which  a  youth  equally  deserving  in  any 
other  country  might  long  look  for  in  vain.  It  is 
quite  a  common  thing  in  the  Middle  and  Western 
States  to  find  several  prominent  men  of  a  town 
or  village  interesting  themselves  to  procure  a 
scholarship  for  some  deserving  young  man  who 
shows  a  promise  of  rising  in  the  world  and  of 
making  most  of  his  possibilities.  A  young  man 
attempting  to  begin  business,  if  he  has  any  busi- 
ness sense  in  him,  may  be  sure  of  equal  sym- 
pathy. I  have  seen  a  young  fellow  without  a  bit 
of  property  except  what  he  wore  on  his  back  go 
through  the  business  street  of  a  Western  village 
and  borrow  five  dollars  from  each  merchant, 
specifying  a  little  business  operation  in  which  he 
thought  he  could  find  some  money.  He  was  not 
the  best  young  man  in  the  village,  and  occasion- 
ally he  drank  too  much  liquor,  but  no  one  refused 
him  the  money.  I  doubt  whether  any  of  them 
would  have  dared  to ;  public  opinion  would  have 
been  against  them.  Not  that  the  boy  deserved 
anything  or  had  any  right  to  demand  it,  but  that 
it  was  the  sentiment  of  the  public  that  any  one 
who  found  anything  to  do  and  knew  how  to  do  it 
ought  to  have  a  fair  show.  All  of  them  started 
in  life  in  much  the  same  way,  and  those  who  had 
most  succeeded  were  most  convinced  that  it  was 
only  a  fair  thing  to  treat  others  as  they  them- 


ONE   MAN'S   AS  GOOD   AS  ANOTHER.  173 

selves  had  been  treated.     The  young  fellow  al- 
luded to  is  now  a  prominent  Congressman. 

The  development  of  this  spirit  of  equality  is 
what  makes  foreigners  call  us  a  conceited  people. 
Self-confidence  is  not  conceit  except  when  it  is 
not  put  into  practical  operation.  Perhaps  it  is 
not  even  self-confidence  that  makes  individuals 
attempt  what  seems  to  be  the  impossible.  If 
something  must  be  done,  and  a  man  must  do  it 
for  himself,  compulsion  is  the  impulse  or  perhaps 
self-preservation.  It  is  not  self-confidence,  much 
less  conceit,  that  makes  the  common  soldier  stand 
up  against  a  superior  force  around  him ;  it  is  the 
feeling  that  there  is  no  way  to  get  out  of  his  un- 
desirable position  except  that  of  fighting  out. 
There  never  was  a  man  who  seemed  to  have  less 
self-confidence  than  General  Grant  when  he  first 
went  into  the  military  service.  He  had  been 
making  a  long  fight  with  the  world,  and  had  had 
abundant  reasons  for  imagining  that  if  men  were 
equal  to  one  another  he  must  have  been  left  out 
in  the  general  distribution  of  equality.  Yet  when 
fortune  placed  him  in  a  position  where  duty  was 
to  be  done  he  went  to  work  to  do  it.  He  himself 
explained  afterward  that  his  first  success  was  not 
gained  through  confidence  in  himself  but  through 
an  impression  that  the  commander  on  the  other 
side  was  quite  as  badly  scared  as  he,  and  that  in 
the  conflict  between  them  the  chances  would  at 
least  be  even  in  Grant's  favor.  As  the  war  con- 


174  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

tinned,  of  those  who  were  nearest  him,  including 
some  who  were  watching  him  closely  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  finding  fault  and  discovering  his  weak- 
nesses, none  were  able  to  discover  any  signs  of 
conceit  or  any  expression  of  confidence  in  him- 
self. The  impression  seemed  to  be  simply  that 
he  realized  that  a  great  work  was  to  be  done,  that 
he  was  expected  to  do  it,  that  consequently  it 
must  be  done,  and  that  he  must  find  a  way  of 
doing  it.  His  whole  time  was  consumed  in  search- 
ing for  this  way.  He  made  blunders,  perhaps  a 
great  many  of  them,  but  he  had  no  way  of  back- 
ing out,  he  had  no  way  of  giving  up.  Having 
begun  he  was  compelled  to  go  on.  Whether  or 
no  he  thought  himself  the  equal  of  the  trained 
and  more  experienced  soldiers  who  occasionally 
were  opposed  to  him,  he  was  obliged  to  consider 
himself  so  for  practical  purposes  for  the  time 
being ;  and  such  being  the  necessity,  he  made 
himself  equal  to  it.  In  like  measure  the  spirit 
of  equality,  or  that  phase  of  it  which  compels  a 
man  to  take  the  position  of  equal  toward  some 
one  whom  he  may  previously  have  regarded  as 
his  superior,  made  capital  soldiers  out  of  some 
very  raw  young  men  and  of  some  experienced 
subalterns  of  the  old  army.  Unfortunately  they 
were  not  all  on  our  side,  as  some  splendid  suc- 
cesses of  Southern  commanders  will  remind  any 
one  who  looks  over  the  history  of  the  war. 

There  is  no  sign  of  this  splendid  and  distinc- 


ONE   MAN'S   AS   GOOD    AS   ANOTHER.  175 

tive  American  spirit  dying  out.  When  you  see 
a  class  that  does  not  manifest  it,  and  you  do  see 
such  classes  sometimes  in  large  cities  and  man- 
ufacturing towns,  you  are  likely  to  find  it  com- 
posed largely  of  the  leavings  of  native  popula- 
tion and  of  a  large  proportion  of  foreigners  who 
have  not  been  "  around  "  enough  in  this  country 
to  become  infected  by  the  national  spirit.  To  be 
relieved  of  the  necessity  of  doing  something  ap- 
parently beyond  his  skill  and  resources  is  a  mis- 
fortune to  the  character  of  any  man,  particularly 
of  any  American,  and  the  banding  together  of 
large  numbers  of  men  dependent  upon  a  single 
employer  or  corporation  and  acting  only  as  the 
tools  of  other  men,  instead  of  according  to  their 
own  volition  in  the  circumstances  around  them, 
is  not  good  for  any  one.  But  some  qualities  lie 
dormant  a  long  while  in  human  nature  without 
dying,  and  the  sons  of  some  of  these  same  men, 
being  sent  away  from  home,  or  perhaps  running 
away,  and  finding  themselves  in  newer  countries, 
or  at  sea,  or  strangers  in  a  strange  city,  frequently 
bring  to  the  surface  qualities  of  which  the 
parents  have  never  suspected  the  existence  in 
themselves,  much  less  in  their  children. 

It  is  dying  out  in  New  England  though,  where 
it  used  to  be  liveliest.  There  is  no  deader  place 
than  an  old  New  England  village.  Well,  there 
is  no  emptier  pocket  than  that  of  a  man  who  has 
found  real  good  use  for  all  the  money  he  can  get. 


176  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

Make  inquiries  for  a  little  while  in  one  of  these 
villages  you  call  dead,  and  you  will  find  that 
much  of  the  liveliest  life  in  the  big  cities  and  in 
the  new  West  is  provided  by  men  who  were  boys 
in  that  village  a  few  years  ago.  You  don't  go  to 
a  hotbed  for  full-grown  cabbages,  do  you,  or  to  a 
nursery  for  a  barrel  of  apples  ?  You  go  to  the 
places  where  the  new  growth  is  transplanted  and 
comes  into  bearing  or  the  fulness  of  its  growth. 
Fears  have  been  expressed  very  frequently, 
since  immigration  to  the  United  States  began, 
that  we  would  have  in  time  a  class  of  population 
which  would  be  a  drag  upon  us  because  the 
spread  of  equality  among  many  foreigners  who 
have  come  here  has  often  shown  itself  in  a  will- 
ingness to  be  as  good  as  anybody  else  without 
assuming  any  of  the  responsibilities  of  the  com- 
munity— a  class  which  has  considered  itself  not 
only  the  equal,  but  apparently  the  superior  of  all 
others  by  insisting  upon  being  supported  without 
any  labor  on  its  own  part.  But  it  is  a  great 
blunder  to  mistake  moonrise  for  break  of  day. 
Only  very  young  roosters  do  that.  A  single 
gnarled  apple  is  no  sign  of  the  yield  of  a  tree, 
and  a  few  anarchists  and  socialists  and  paupers 
and  men  who  have  made  a  business  at  home 
of  in  some  way  living  upon  the  community 
which  they  chanced  to  infest  for  the  time  being, 
are  not  fair  illustrations  of  our  immigrant  pop- 
ulation. The  foreigner  is  very  quick  to  learn 


ONE   MAN'S  AS  GOOD   AS  ANOTHER.  177 

what  equality  means  in  the  United  States  and  to 
work  the  spirit  for  all  that  it  is  worth.  If  you 
don't  believe  it,  look  at  the  names  of  members 
of  city  governments  all  over  the  country  and  the 
names  on  the  police  forces,  and  on  all  other  lists 
of  men  who  draw  salaries  which  are  paid  from 
the  taxes  levied  upon  the  public.  The  foreigner 
very  quickly  finds  himself  an  equal  of  the 
native  in  all  affairs  pertaining  to  government 
of  the  nation,  the  State,  the  county  or  the  town. 
And,  to  do  him  justice,  he  lives  up  to  it  as  a 
rule  as  if  he  had  a  full  and  abiding  sense  of  the 
honor  which  he  has  acquired.  There  may  be 
some  exceptions  in  the  case  of  men  who  have  so 
long  been  repressed  in  other  countries  that  the 
rebound  is  powerful  almost  beyond  their  own 
control.  Some  of  these  people  impress  fearful 
souls  with  the  idea  that  they  were  born  to  rule, 
and  that  their  sole  mission  in  the  United  States 
is  to  manage  the  natives.  But  this  mistaken 
view  of  equality  does  not  last  very  long.  It  very 
seldom  descends  to  the  sons  of  the  conceited  and 
assuming  immigrant. 

If  it  were  not  for  this  spirit  of  equality ;  if  we, 
like  most  of  the  people  of  Kurope,  were  to  de- 
pend upon  a  special  class  or  several  classes  for 
the  conduct  of  government,  business,  church 
and  society  in  general,  we  would  be  in  a  pretty 
bad  way,  for  some  of  the  most  successful  execu- 
tive faculty  to  be  found  in  the  country  is  in  the 
12 


178  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

possession  of  some  men  in  very  humble  circum- 
stances financially,  and  who  were  born  in  the 
extreme  lower  walks  of  respectable  life.  Aris- 
tocrats, whether  by  birth  or  money,  or  both,  are 
not  the  ruling  class  in  any  portion  of  the  United 
States,  not  even  in  California,  which,  by  a  pecu- 
liarity of  land  laws,  is  the  most  aristocratic  State 
of  the  Union,  although  one  of  the  newest.  The 
people  will  have  their  way,  and  they  do  have  it 
in  spite  of  all  that  money  can  do.  Bribery  itself 
is  not  superior  to  their  will,  although  there  is  no 
land  where  it  is  resorted  to  as  freely  as  here,  or 
where  so  large  sums  are  appropriated  for  the 
creation  of  that  sort  of  influence. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE  OTHER  SIDE  OF  IT. 

THERE  is  no  virtue  that  cannot  be  perverted 
into  a  vice. 

The  spirit  of  equality  to  which  we  owe  so 
much  in  this  land  can  be  misused  so  as  to  do 
incalculable  harm.  It  often  is  so  misused,  and 
is  doing  a  great  deal  of  damage  in  numerous 
ways. 

If  all  our  people  had  plenty  of  brains,  or 
would  use  all  the  brains  they  have  for  all  they 
are  worth,  there  would  be  no  trouble.  But  other 
nations,  even  the  most  favored,  have  not  estab- 
lished a  monopoly  of  fools  and  lazy-heads.  On 
the  other  hand,  our  own  nation  has  an  indefinite 
number  of  people  who  are  quite  willing  to  take 
all  the  profits  and  the  honors  that  are  to  be  had, 
without  endeavor  to  make  themselves  fit  for 
them.  The  feeling  that  one  man  is  as  good  as 
another,  and  that  the  world  owes  him  a  chance, 
and  that  he  is  going  to  have  it  in  some  way,  by 
foul  means,  if  not  by  fair,  is  altogether  too 
prominent ;  and  the  man  who  has  that  spirit  is 

unfortunately  so  feeble  of  conscience  that  there 

(179) 


180  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

is  nothing  to  restrain  him  from  making  himself 
extremely  troublesome.  At  the  present  time 
there  are  about  twelve  million  adult  men  in  the 
United  States  ;  and,  if  statesmen  and  politicians 
are  to  be  believed,  about  three-fourths  of  them 
are  tormenting  some  one  supposed  to  have  in- 
fluence with  the  new  President,  to  get  offices  for 
them.  What  the  office  is,  is  not  pertinent  to  the 
subject;  if  they  cannot  have  one,  they  will  take 
another,  but  an  office  they  do  persistently  de- 
mand. Among  this  body  of  office-seekers,  there 
probably  is  not  one  man  in  a  thousand  who 
would  not  take  the  highest  position  within  the 
gift  of  the  President,  if  it  were  offered  him.  A 
sense  of  fitness  seems  to  be  left  entirely  out  of 
their  mental  natures.  Office  gives  prominence ; 
they  must  be  prominent :  that  seems  to  be  the 
nature  of  their  argument  with  themselves.  They 
know  somebody  else,  no  smarter  than  themselves 
apparently,  who  has  held  government  office, 
perhaps  been  quite  prominent,  and  if  he  was  fit 
for  the  position,  which  he  filled  without  being 
removed  in  disgrace,  why  should  not  they  ? 
The  man  who  does  not  think  himself  quite  as 
good  and  wise  as  any  of  his  neighbors,  is  pretty 
hard  to  find  anywhere  in  the  United  States.  He 
cannot  be  found  at  all  among  men  who  are  look- 
ing for  office. 

It  would  not  be  fair  to  attribute  this  reckless- 
ness to  entire  lack  of  conscience,  because  some 


THE  OTHER  SIDE   OF  IT.  181 

of  the  applicants  aud  aspirants  are  men  against 
whose  character  there  are  no  aspersions  that  can 
be  proved.  The  feeling  is  largely  to  be  attributed 
to  the  unceasing  ambition  of  men  already  in 
positions  of  more  or  less  consequence,  and  to  the 
willingness  of  prominent  public  men  to  allow 
their  names  to  be  used  in  connection  with  offices 
far  above  their  abilities.  There  never  approaches 
the  time  for  the  nomination  of  Presidential  can- 
didates without  aspirants  cropping  up  in  every 
State.  One  of  the  hardest  public  duties  at  such 
times  is  for  almost  any  State  to  select  her  favorite 
son.  But  after  all  the  favorite  sons  are  selected, 
how  many  of  the  whole  number  would  strike  any 
observer  of  large  perceptive  power  and  judicial 
temperament,  as  being  at  all  fit  for  the  highest 
office  within  the  gift  of  the  people  ?  There  are 
men  at  Washington,  in  one  branch  or  other  of 
Congress,  who  are  known  to  have  been  aspirants 
to  the  Presidency  from  the  very  beginning  of 
their  public  career.  They  are  personally  honest, 
they  are  well  liked  by  their  neighbors :  that 
seems  to  them  sufficient  excuse  for  their  am- 
bitions. They  would  not,  for  an  instant,  hesitate 
to  accept  a  nomination  to  the  Presidency  or  a 
high  Cabinet  office,  whether  they  have  any  knowl- 
edge or  not  of  the  practical  duties  of  the  position, 
or  whether  by  nature  and  temperament  they  are 
fitted  to  discharge  those  duties  as  public  trusts. 
There  is  no  saying  in  politics  so  unpopular  and 


182  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

exasperating  among  the  majority  of  men  who 
hold  office  or  want  office,  as  that  quoted  by 
President  Cleveland,  "  A  public  office  is  a  public 
trust."  Public  offices  some  regard  as  gifts,  and 
if  the  public  is  going  to  give  away  anything, 
each  man  considers  himself  quite  as  deserving 
as  any  of  his  neighbors  to  receive  what  the 
public  has  to  dispose  of  in  that  manner. 

There  are  not  enough  presidencies  to  go  round. 
But,  as  already  said,  the  man  who  wrants  office 
and  cannot  have  one  position,  is  not  on  that  ac- 
count going  to  decline  another.  Through  every 
grade  of  politics  in  the  United  States  there  is 
not  a  position,  even  down  to  that  of  constable  in 
a  quiet  neighborhood,  but  what  is  severely  strug- 
gled for  at  every  election.  There  is  not  a  con- 
sulship in  the  gift  of  the  government,  no  matter 
how  small  the  fees,  there  being  no  other  compen- 
sation, but  what  is  in  demand  by  numerous 
applicants.  The  utter  unfitness  of  many  of  those 
applicants  for  positions  to  which  they  aspire  is 
simply  laughable.  The  man  who  has  failed  at 
everything  else,  and  would  not  dare  to  apply  to 
business  men  of  any  sort  for  a  position  of  merit, 
trust  and  responsibility,  seems  to  consider  him- 
self quite  fit  to  discharge  the  duties,  often  delicate, 
and  always  business-like,  of  a  servant  of  the 
government.  A  man  who  cannot  get  credit  of 
the  corner-grocery,  or  at  the  notion  store  in  the 
middle  of  the  block,  seems  to  think  there  is 


THE  OTHER  SIDE  OF  IT.  183 

nothing  indecorous  in  his  running  for  alderman 
of  one  of  the  districts  of  a  large  and  wealthy 
city.  The  man  who  cannot  borrow  five  dollars 
of  any  of  his  neighbors  has  no  hesitation  in 
going  to  all  of  them  with  a  petition  asking  the 
Postmaster-General  or  the  President  to  put  him 
in  charge  of  the  post-office  of  his  town.  To  be 
sure,  he  will  be  obliged  to  handle  a  great  deal  of 
money  for  the  government,  and  none  of  his 
neighbors  would  trust  him  to  handle  any  at  all 
for  themselves ;  nevertheless  a  sense  of  his  own 
unfitness  never  seems  to  strike  him  at  all.  The 
position  of  postmaster  is  vacant  or  likely  to  be: 
somebody  must  fill  it.  He  is  as  good  as  any 
one  else,  in  his  own  estimation,  and  he  never 
descends  to  particulars  in  any  comparisons  which 
he  may  make  between  himself  and  other  persons 
who  may  aspire  to  the  position. 

There  are  about  a  hundred  thousand  places  to 
which  officers  are  appointed  by  the  government, 
but  even  these  are  not  enough  to  go  round  among 
all  the  aspirants.  So  men  who  aspire  to  official 
position,  or  to  the  control  of  affairs  of  other  peo- 
ple, must  look  somewhere  else.  Fortunately  for 
them,  however  unfortunate  it  may  be  to  a  long- 
suffering  public,  there  are  plenty  of  other  places 
to  fill.  Every  town  must  have  a  lot  of  petty 
officers,  so  must  every  church  and  every  othei 
organized  public  or  private  association,  and  fot 
positions  in  these  there  is  often  quite  as  unseemly 


184  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

» 
a  struggle  as  for  government   office.      Church 

fights  are  quite  as  numerous  and  quite  as  ugly 
as  political  squabbles  over  the  spoils  of  office  in 
country  towns. 

Another  misapplication  of  the  spirit  of  equality 
is  shown  in  the  American  impulse  to  make  a 
show.  We  do  not  call  it  making  a  show;  we 
call  it  setting  the  best  foot  forward.  But  the 
manner  in  which  it  is  done  requires  that  the  best 
foot  as  a  rule  should  be  somebody  else's,  and 
used  either  without  his  consent  or  through  a  mis- 
statement  of  facts.  The  man  who  wants  to  build 
a  house  is  almost  sure  to  build  a  larger  one  than 
he  can  afford  to  pay  for  or  to  furnish,  and  he 
does  this  on  the  principle  that  he  will  be  equal  to 
it  in  the  course  of  time,  and  that  he  needs  it  any- 
how, he  wants  it  very  much,  and,  more  than  all, 
he  is  not  going  to  be  outdone  in  that  respect  by 
somebody  else  who  is  not  any  smarter  or  richer 
than  he.  The  houses  inhabited  to-day  by  clerks 
in  many  large  villages  are  better  than  those 
which  the  same  clerks'  employers  lived  in  when 
they  were  fairly  started  in  business,  and  the  resi- 
dents of  all  our  large  cities  pay  more  money  pro- 
portionately for  house-rent  than  those  of  any 
other  country  in  the  world.  It  is  not  at  all  an 
uncommon  thing  in  the  United  States  to  see  a 
man  devoting  a  full  third  of  his  income  to  house- 
rent  or  to  the  interest,  taxes,  and  other  necessary 
outlays  upon  purchased  property.  It  is  not  for 


THE  OTHER  SIDE   OF   IT.  185 

necessity ;  as  a  rule  it  is  all  for  show.  Good 
habitations  are  certainly  hard  to  find  in  large 
cities  without  disproportionate  outlay  from  one's 
income,  but  the  habit  of  spending  too  much  in 
this  manner  is  not  at  all  restricted  to  the  cities. 
Builders  take  advantage  of  it,  so  do  owners  of 
land.  An  immense  number  of  houses  are  sold 
on  very  small  advance  payments,  with  mortgages 
to  cover  the  remainder,  solely  because  the  original 
owner  knows  that  the  purchaser  cannot  afford  to 
carry  the  property,  and  that  sooner  or  later  it  will 
come  back  into  his  hands,  and  he  will  have  the 
purchase-money  and  the  property  too. 

This  spirit  of  show,  based  upon  a  mistaken 
sense  of  the  meaning  of  equality,  is  displayed  in 
many  other  ways.  The  clerk  is  not  satisfied 
unless  he  has  about  as  good  a  pew  in  church  as 
his  employer.  His  wife  must  wear  as  good  a 
dress  as  is  worn  by  his  employer's  wife  or  daugh- 
ter. Max  O'Rell,  in  his  new  book  on  the  United 
States,  expresses  his  amazement  at  the  number 
of  diamonds  worn  in  the  United  States,  and  says 
— and  he  certainly  had  reason  to — that  he  saw 
them  on  the  hands  of  the  wives  of  clerks,  me- 
chanics, and  even  on  the  hands  of  shop-girls. 
There  is  no  possible  reason  for  this  outlay  and 
display.  Rich  people  in  other  countries  do  not 
wear  jewelry  except  upon  dress  occasions,  but  the 
American  woman  must  be  seen  with  her  diamonds 
everywhere.  If  she  has  them  at  all,  no  one  who 


186  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

meets  her  is  allowed  to  be  without  knowledge  of 
the  fact.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  distinguish 
by  dress  the  wives  of  the  rich  and  the  poor  until 
we  come  to  the  very  poor.  Shop-girls  in  New 
York  and  Boston  and  Philadelphia  go  to  their 
business  dressed  quite  as  well  as  many  ladies  of 
wealth  and  refinement  who  may  be  seen  on  shop- 
ping tours  and  at  church,  and  everywhere  else 
indeed,  except  at  places  where  dress  is  one  of  the 
features  of  an  entertainment. 

As  to  the  men,  we  do  not  profess  to  be  a  dress- 
ing nation,  but  we  are  the  only  country  in  which 
men  do  not  dress  according  to  their  business. 
Mechanics  who  have  dirty  work  to  do  can  be  seen 
in  large  numbers  in  clothing  suited  to  their  daily 
occupation.  But  the  clerk  on  ten  dollars  a  week 
goes  to  the  store  in  quite  as  handsome  and  well- 
cut  a  suit  as  his  employer  can  wear.  He  gets  a 
new  hat  quite  as  often,  and  it  is  never  of  any 
style  but  the  latest.  He  is  well-gloved,  well- 
shod,  and  if  he  doesn't  wear  an  expensive  watch 
and  chain  the  reason  probably  is  that  he  ran  out 
of  money  before  pay-day,  and  was  obliged  to 
leave  these  articles  of  adornment  with  the  pawn- 
broker for  a  limited  time. 

The  spirit  is  shown  also  in  every  department 
of  speculation.  Some  men  whose  names  are 
well  known  have  made  large  sums  of  money  upon 
very  small  investments,  and  through  some  of  the 
happy  accidents  which  occur  in  all  countries 


THE  OTHER  SIDE   OF   IT.  187 

where  businesses  increase  and  multiply  with 
great  rapidity.  So  the  majority  of  young  men, 
and  even  of  men  no  longer  young,  consider  them- 
selves entirely  fit  to  go  into  speculation,  which 
they  call  business,  with  very  little  financial  prep- 
aration and  a  less  knowledge  of  the  business  into 
which  they  propose  to  venture.  Not  one  in  a 
hundred  of  the  people  who  "  put  up  margins  "  in 
Wall  street  know  anything  whatever  about  the 
stocks  which  they  are  buying  or  selling,  or  the 
influences  which  control  the  rise  and  fall  of  the 
prices  of  those  securities.  But  somebody  has 
made  a  strike,  as  they  call  it,  during  a  chance 
flyer,  and  if  one  man  has  made  it  why  should  not 
another  ?  So  savings  of  all  classes  of  men  pour 
into  Wall  street's  coffers  in  a  steady  stream.  If 
this  were  not  so  there  would  be  no  Stock  Ex- 
change nor  any  rich  brokers,  for  the  few  men 
who  really  handle  securities  to  any  extent  are 
quite  competent  to  transact  their  own  business 
without  any  assistance  from  an  open  market.  In 
fact,  they  would  feel  more  secure  if  there  were 
no  open  market  whatever,  for  as  it  is  they  are 
unable  to  make  their  own  prices  either  in  buying 
or  selling,  but  must  depend  entirely  upon  figures 
which  may  be  changed  any  day  by  the  accident- 
ally concerted  caprices  of  a  lot  of  ignorant  and 
irresponsible  speculators.  Yet  all  of  these  specu- 
lators imagine  themselves  in  business,  and  talk 
fluently  about  what  they  expect  to  make  and 


188  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

about  what  they  will  operate  in  next.  Their 
basis  of  reasoning  is  about  as  accurate  as  that  of 
the  stupid  boy  in  a  recent  prominent  play,  who 
chanced  to  make  a  great  deal  of  money  by  specu- 
lation, and  who  afterwards  remained  in  the  busi- 
ness and  bought  and  sold  according  as  a  coin 
which  he  carried  in  his  pocket  would  show  heads 
or  tails  after  being  spun  in  the  air. 

In  society  and  in  business  this  perversion  of  a 
noble  spirit  is  bad  enough.  It  is  still  more  inju- 
rious to  the  community  when  it  is  manifested  in 
politics.  But  the  misery  does  not  stop  there.  It 
invades  the  church  quite  as  frequently  as  any 
other  place.  Almost  any  young  man  coming 
from  a  theological  seminary  considers  himself 
quite  equal  to  taking  charge  of  a  spiritual  con- 
gregation with  its  varied  needs  that  appall  the 
sensibilities  of  men  of  long  experience  in  that 
solemn  line  of  duty.  There  is  no  one  in  theology 
who  has  quite  so  much  confidence  in  his  own 
ability  and  his  own  opinions  as  the  seminary 
graduate.  He  knows  nothing  of  his  business 
except  that  a  glib  tongue  goes  a  long  way.  His 
models  are  the  pulpit  orators  who  have  become 
famous,  and  what  to  him  is  oratory,  except  what 
is  described  in  old-fashioned  terms  as  the  gift  of 
gab  ? — a  gift  in  which  very  few  young  men  are 
lacking.  Perhaps  if  the  truth  could  be  got  at  in 
any  way  it  would  be  discovered  that  a  large  num- 
ber of  the  empty  pews  in  churches  all  over  the 


THE   OTHER  SIDE   OF   IT.  189 

land  should  not  be  attributed  to  lack  of  religious 
feeling -and  desire,  but  to  the  utter  inability  of 
the  majority  of  incumbents  of  pulpits  and  pastor- 
ates to  discharge  the  duties  which  the  more  sen- 
sible members  of  their  congregation  understand 
better  than  they. 

The  other  learned  professions  suffer  in  the 
same  manner.  It  is  almost  horrible  to  see  in 
every  town  of  the  Union  some  recent  graduate 
of  the  medical  school  setting  himself  up  as  a 
physician,  and  having  the  power  of  life  and  death 
literally  over  a  number  of  people.  He  is  less 
competent  than  an  ordinary  nurse,  but  his  lack 
of  competence  he  makes  up  by  an  ample  supply 
of  confidence.  The  people  know  nothing  about 
medicine,  he  argues;  he  knows  something  about 
it ;  something  is  better  than  nothing.  And 
cases  which  great  surgeons  have  hesitated  to 
handle  he  attempts  with  entire  confidence  and 
cheerfulness.  If  the  patient  recovers  his  confi- 
dence increases ;  if  the  patient  dies,  there  is 
always  God  to  lay  the  blame  on. 

We  need  a  great  deal  more  of  the  old-country 
spirit  which  declares  that  a  man,  no  matter  who 
he  is,  should  be  kept  in  his  place,  and  not  allowed 
to  occupy  any  other  until  he  has  proved  himself 
abundantly  fit  for  it.  The  spirit  of  equality  in 
an  unthinking  people  is  a  constant  war  against 
this  very  admirable  social  custom,  and  the  war  is 
likely  to  continue  indefinitely  in  this  country 


190  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

until  our  sparsely  settled  districts  are  so  thickly 
populated  that  it  will  require  more  than  self- 
assertion  to  place  an  incompetent  man  in  a  prom- 
inent position  of  any  kind.  The  good  work  has 
begun  at  the  bottom,  and  has  come  about  through 
competition.  Mechanics  are  sharply  pitted  against 
each  other,  and  so  are  all  specialists  in  the  arts, 
and  no  amount  of  self-confidence  has  the  slightest 
effect  upon  the  employer  who  must  get  certain 
results  from  a  certain  amount  of  labor  unless  he 
is  to  lose  money.  The  same  spirit  of  competition 
is  likely  to  work  its  way  upward  through  other 
departments  of  labor  and  in  all  classes  of  society 
as  the  country  becomes  more  populous  and  com- 
munities become  larger.  But  until  this  is  the 
case,  until  the  dangers  and  losses  due  to  the  lack 
of  sense  of  responsibility,  which  comes  through 
this  perverted  sense  of  equality,  are  got  rid  of,  it 
is  the  duty  of  every  one  to  be  on  guard  against 
a  class  which  would  not  feel  complimented  to  be 
called  upstarts,  but  who  ought  to  be  satisfied  at 
getting  off  with  no  worse  name. 

In  a  most  thoughtful  and  noble  essay  on 
"The  Competitive  Element  in  Modern  Life," 
Bishop  Potter,  of  New  York,  recently  wrote :  * 
"  Nothing  is  more  undeniably  true  than  that 
such  rivalries  are  among  the  most  fruitful 
sources  of  evil  in  every  department  of  life.  The 
world  lately  has  witnessed  the  spectacle  of  a 

*  Scribner's  Magazine,  February,  1889. 


BISHOP  POTTER. 


THE  OTHER  SIDE  OF  IT.  191 

great  people,  agitated  by  a  heated  political  con- 
test which  for  the  hour  has  absorbed  every  other 
interest.  We  may  laud  the  superiority  of  our 
institutions,  and  compare  them  boastfully  with 
the  monarchical  governments  of  other  countries, 
but  I  fancy  that  some  of  us,  seeing  the  heat  and 
acrimony  that  our  political  contests  so  easily 
engender,  catching  the  echoes  of  the  harsh 
speech  and  bitter  innuendo  and  half  smothered 
strife  that  have  often  filled  the  air,  have  seriously 
questioned  whether  that  form  of  government 
which  involves  such  strifes  is,  on  the  whole,  so 
surely  wiser  and  more  wholesome  than  any 
other.  And  yet  the  rivalries  and  excitements  of 
political  life  are  by  no  means  the  largest  or  most 
conspicuous  element  in  any  ordinary  experience. 
At  most  they  are  awakened  but  seldom,  and  by 
contests  which  occur  at  considerable  intervals. 
But  of  other  rivalries — the  rivalries  of  the  street 
and  the  shop,  and  the  drawing-room,  when  and 
where  do  we  not  hear  the  echoes  ?  " 

The  good  bishop  further  says  :  "  All  are  in  the 
race,  whether  it  be  for  place  or  power  or  fortune, 
'  but  one  receiveth  the  prize.'  And  when  he 
does,  at  what  cost  he  wins  it !  The  disappointed 
competitors  who  take  their  punishment  so 
bravely,  does  anybody  believe  that  defeat  does 
not  wound  them  ?  When  one  has  set  his  heart 
on  a  coveted  possession,  and  has  spent  years  in 
training  for  the  arena,  and  then  for  other  years 


192  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

has  strained  every  nerve  in  the  race  to  reach  it, 
does  any  one  suppose  that  failure  costs  him 
nothing?  And  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
struggle  has  been  successful  and  the  outstretched 
hand  has  snatched  the  prize,  can  any  of  us  im- 
agine that  even  success  is  without  its  sting? 
To  lose  what  you  have  toiled  and  schemed  and 
striven  for,  and  to  see  another  finally  possess 
it — yes,  that  is  hard ;  but  is  there  not  a  wretched- 
ness quite  as  real  in  the  consciousness  that  your 
success  has  caused  another's  failure — that  your 
momentary  triumph  is  his  lasting  misfortune, 
and  that  what  you  have  gained  for  yourself , you 
have  gained  by  snatching  it  from  him  ?  Is 
there  no  element  of  misery  in  the  consciousness 
that,  whatever  you  may  be  in  possession  of, 
there  are  scores  of  other  people  who  honestly 
believe  that  they  have  a  better  right  to  it,  and 
will  find  no  pleasure  so  keen  as  the  pleasure  of 
pointing  at  your  defects  and  of  detracting  from 
your  achievements  ?  Would  it  comfort  you  to 
live  in  a  palace  if  you  knew  that,  every  time 
your  neighbors  passed  it,  they  dropped  a  sneer 
at  your  ostentation,  your  extravagance,  or  your 
unfitness  for  your  surroundings  ?  " 

Nevertheless  competition  is  one  of  the  laws  of 
life,  and  the  only  one  to  which  we  can  look  for 
relief  from  the  curse  of  incompetent  men  in  the 
place  of  honor  and  responsibility.  The  success 
of  the  fittest  means  disappointment  for  families 
and  friends  of  those  who  are  unfit ;  nevertheless, 


THE   OTHER   SIDE   OF   IT.  193 

as  Bishop  Potter  further  remarks,  competition 
must  be  recognized  and  respected.  Says  the 
reverend  essayist,  "  Competition — a  strife  to 
excel,  nay,  if  you  choose,  downright  rivalry — 
has  a  just  and  rightful  place  in  the  plan  of  any 
human  life.  A  prize  fight  is  probably  the  most 
disgusting  spectacle  on  earth,  but  it  has  in  it 
just  one  moment  which  very  nearly  approaches 
the  sublime  ;  and  that  is  when  the  combatants 
shake  hands  with  each  other  and  exchange  that 
salutation  as  old  as  the  classic  arena,  i  may  the 
best  man  win.'  It  is  the  equitable  thing  that 
the  best  man  should  win.  When  we  turn  to  the 
most  august  and  eventful  conflict  which  human 
history  records,  we  find  it  described  as  the 
winning  of  a  prize,  the  reaching  of  a  goal,  the 
conquest  of  an  adversary.  Of  course  it  is  pos- 
sible to  suppose  such  a  thing  as  a  life  without 
rivalries  and  competitions,  and  to  look  forward 
to  a  time,  when,  amid  other  conditions,  they  will 
be  at  once  needless  and  incongruous  ;  but  in  such 
a  life  as  ours  is  now — in  a  life,  that  is  to  say, 
which  so  plainly  has  discipline  and  education 
for  its  end — to  take  all  rivalry  and  competition 
out  of  it  would  be  to  rob  it  of  one  of  the  might- 
iest and  most  wholesome  agencies  for  the  en- 
nobling of  human  character." 

Such  a  life  would  make  public  life  in  America 
far  more  pure  and  effective  than  it  now  is.  May 
heaven  speed  the  day  when  it  is  to  reach  us. 

13 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

IMMIGRATION. 

BECAUSE  this  is  a  land  of  liberty  a  great  many 
foreigners  imagine  it  a  land  of  license.  To  do 
them  justice,  they  do  not  know  any  better.  But 
we  do,  and  it  is  our  duty  to  teach  them  the  dif- 
ference. If  we  don't,  we,  not  they,  will  be  the 
principal  sufferers. 

The  subject  of  immigration  has  been  largely 
discussed  by  the  newspapers  of  late,  and  a  good 
deal  of  demagogy  has  been  got  off  in  Congress 
on  the  same  subject.  But  sensible  people  are 
pretty  well  agreed  that  it  is  time  to  put  some 
restriction  upon  the  use  of  America  as  a  common 
dumping  ground  for  the  world's  offal  and  rubbish. 
This  country  is  not  an  asylum  for  criminals  or 
paupers.  That  ought  to  go  without  saying  and 
it  should  not  require  any  argument  to  prove,  but 
it  seems  we  have  been  very  careless  in  this  direc- 
tion. A  short  time  ago  the  New  York  Herald 
said :  "America  is  no  longer  to  be  considered  the 
legitimate  dumping  ground  for  the  paupers,  the 
idiots,  the  insane  and  the  criminals  of  Europe," 
and  Congressman  Ford,  chairman  of  the  Immi- 

(194) 


IMMIGRATION.  195 

gratiou  Committee  and  father  of  the  bill  which 
was  presented  in  January,  made  the  statement 
that  "  if  the  law  could  be  strictly  enforced  I  be- 
lieve our  immigration  would  be  decreased  from 
these  sources  at  least  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  per  annum."  This  is  an  awful  propor- 
tion of  the  aggregate  of  immigration,  for  the 
entire  figure  exceeds  half  a  million  per  year  very 
little.  Still  Mr.  Ford  may  be  supposed,  from  his 
position,  to  know  what  he  is  talking  about,  for 
his  committee  has  spent  a  great  amount  of  time 
in  examining  a  great  many  witnesses  who  are 
supposed  to  understand  the  nature  of  the  immi- 
gration to  this  country  of  the  peoples  of  the 
whole  world.  But  enough  about  paupers,  idiots, 
insane  and  criminals  ;  everybody  is  agreed  that 
we  do  not  want  them. 

Are  there  any  other  classes  whom  we  do  not 
want  ?  Yes ;  we  cannot  afford  to  have  the  con- 
tract laborer.  The  native  labor  organizations 
have  talked  a  good  deal  of  nonsense  about  the 
foreigner,  but  not  on  this  one  subject.  The  impor- 
tation on  contract  of  men  to  do  a  certain  amount 
of  work  for  a  smaller  sum  than  American  citizens 
would  accept,  and  to  carry  back  almost  all  their 
earnings  to  be  spent  in  another  country,  is  a  very 
successful  way  of  making  a  nation  poor.  If  we 
were  to  send  all  of  our  money  to  Europe  for  the 
purchase  of  supplies  and  Europe  were  to  buy 
nothing  of  us  in  return,  it  would  soon  be  impos- 


196  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

sible  to  raise  enough  coin  to  buy  a  postage  stamp. 
Yet  contract  labor  is  a  transaction  of  exactly  the 
same  nature,  and  it  is  increasing  at  a  rate  that 
may  be  estimated  from  the  known  ability  and 
willingness  of  large  employers  to  have  work  done 
as  cheaply  as  possible,  regardless  of  the  conse- 
quences to  every  one  but  themselves. 

When,  however,  statesmen  or  politicians,  or 
demagogues  or  well-meaning  labor  agitators  or 
leaders,  insist  that  skilled  labor  should  be  kept 
out  of  the  country,  it  is  to  the  interest  of  the 
community  to  firmly,  persistently  and  indig- 
nantly oppose  any  such  proposition.  Lack  of 
skilled  labor  is  the  curse  of  the  country.  Be- 
cause a  man  is  employed  on  work  which  requires 
skill  and  experience  is  no  sign  that  he  is  fully 
competent  to  do  it.  The  tramps  who  bind  the 
farmer's  wheat,  the  cast-aways  and  chance  laborers 
who  build  some  houses  in  the  West,  the  riff-raff 
who  are  gathered  together  occasionally  to  work  a 
mine,  or  sail  a  ship,  or  do  the  work  of  a  planta- 
tion or  a  farm  for  a  short  season,  are  the  most 
costly  labor  that  could  be  employed,  and  a  great 
deal  of  work  supposed  to  be  done  by  experts  in 
the  United  States  is  almost  as  expensive.  So 
long  as  we  don't  allow  young  men  to  learn  trades 
— and  that  seems  to  be  the  rule  at  present — we 
must  have  men  who  have  learned  trades  some- 
where else.  Plenty  of  Americans  can  be  found 
in  New  York  city  at  half  an  hour's  notice  who 


IMMIGRATION.  197 

complain  with  real  patriotic  feeling  that,  while 
they  would  like  all  their  own  employes  to  be 
Americans,  they  cannot  find  a  large  number  or 
even  a  respectable  majority  of  natives  who  are 
sufficiently  skilled  to  do  the  work  for  which  they 
are  called  upon.  The  consumption  of  piano- 
fortes, for  instance,  in  the  United  States,  is 
twenty  times  as  great,  according  to  statistics  of 
trade,  as  in  any  other  country  of  equal  population 
in  the  world.  But  in  going  through  a  piano  fac- 
tory one  might  very  quickly  imagine  himself  in 
a  foreign  country.  It  is  not  that  the  manufac- 
turers are  all  foreigners,  for  they  are  not,  or  that 
they  prefer  foreign  labor,  or  that  foreign  piano- 
makers  work  cheaper  than  those  of  native  birth, 
but  simply  because  we  have  scarcely  any  of 
native  birth,  although  this  variety  of  manufac- 
turing industry  has  been  active  in  this  country 
for  nearly  two  generations. 

In  many  other  of  the  mechanical  arts  the 
same  lack  of  native  skilled  labor  is  manifested. 
The  wall-paper  printers,  the  engravers,  the  better 
class  of  weavers,  and  several  other  mechanical 
arts,  which  require  the  services  of  draughtsmen 
and  colorists,  are  almost  all  obliged  to  depend 
upon  men  of  foreign  birth  for  their  work.  It  is 
pleasing  to  realize  that  most  of  these  foreign 
workmen  are  now  naturalized  American  citizens 
and  probably  quite  as  loyal  to  the  Union  and 
the  Constitution  as  any  of  our  native-born  oper- 


198  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

atives,  but  the  probabilities  are,  that  as  they 
grow  old  or  disabled,  and  have  to  be  replaced,  the 
new  men  must  come  from  the  same  sources  as 
the  old.  Between  Americans  not  being  allowed 
to  learn  trades,  and  Americans  not  being  willing 
to  learn  trades,  we  are  pretty  badly  off  for 
mechanical  labor  unless  we  can  depend  upon 
foreign  countries. 

We  need  not  blame  foreigners  for  this ;  we 
have  only  our  own  selves  to  blame  and  our  own 
people.  The  reason  for  the  general  dependence 
upon  foreign  labor,  beside  the  inability  of  young 
men  who  wish  to  learn  a  trade  to  be  allowed  to 
follow  their  inclinations,  is  that  the  most  of  our 
own  people  are  rapidly  getting  above  anything 
and  everything  that  does  not  afford  an  oppor- 
tunity for  speculation.  Beside,  it  is  one  of  the 
inevitable  results  of  the  theory  of  social  equality, 
a  theory  which  must  do  a  great  deal  more  harm 
than  it  yet  has  done  before  we  abandon  it,  that, 
as  the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  the  country  in- 
creases, and  new  opportunities  of  making  money 
multiply,  the  «=ons  of  farmers  and  mechanics 
will  be  reluctant  to  follow  the  occupations  of 
their  fathers.  We  have  heard  a  great  deal  about 
the  unwillingness  of  the  Hebrews  to  indulge  in 
any  mechanical  or  routine  labor,  and  their 
avidity  to  enter  all  branches  of  trade  where 
barter  and  sale  are  the  principal  occupations, 
but  the  modern  American  can  double  discount 


IMMIGRATION.  199 

the  Hebrew  in  this  particular  and  then  get  ahead 
of  him  about  as  often  as  not. 

There  is  no  sign  that  the  native-born  Ameri- 
can youth  will  revert  to  the  good  old  custom  of 
his  fathers,  and  endeavor  to  learn  a  trade,  even 
if  he  were  able  to  do  it.  It  is  unfashionable  to 
work  with  one's  hands  in  a  country  where  most 
of  the  money  is  made  by  working  with  one's  wits. 
The  mechanic's  son,  and  the  farmer's  son,  and 
the  day  laborer's  son  gets  as  good  a  common- 
school  education  as  the  children  of  the  richest 
men  in  the  town,  and  has  equal  opportunities  for 
going  into  mercantile  business,  or  for  entering 
the  offices  of  business  houses  and  corporations, 
and  his  own  father  will  tell  him  that  he  is  a  fool 
unless  he  embraces  these  opportunities.  No 
man  gets  rich  by  farming  alone,  or  by  laboring 
at  day's  wages  at  any  mechanical  occupation, 
whereas  some  men  in  trade  and  speculation 
amass  great  fortunes.  That  forty-nine  out  of 
every  fifty  finally  fail  and  never  get  upon  their 
feet  again  does  not  occur  either  to  the  youth  or 
to  his  parents.  Let  us  hope  that  some  day  it 
will,  and  that  our  young  men  will  not  be 
ashamed  to  earn  their  bread  literally  by  the 
sweat  of  their  brow.  But  the  prospect  at  present 
for  any  such  change  seems  exceedingly  remote. 
Indeed,  until  the  change  occurs  we  will  need  all 
the  skilled  labor  we  can  get  from  abroad.  Unless 
the  supply  increases  we  will  either  have  to  give 


200  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

up  some  of  our  country's  business  schemes  and 
prospects,  or  we  will  be  obliged  to  offer  a  bounty 
or  a  premium  to  foreign  laborers  to  come  over 
here. 

We  especially  need  .foreign  farmers  and  work- 
men for  the  instruction  of  our  own  farmers,  and 
a  large  immigration  of  foreign  agriculturists,  if 
they  could  be  sprinkled  among  our  agricultural 
communities  in  the  various  States,  would  do 
more  than  any  proposed  legislation  to  improve 
the  condition  of  the  American  farmer.  In  his 
efforts  to  get  beyond  his  strength  and  resources', 
efforts  which  are  natural  in  all  new  countries, 
our  farmer  wastes  enough  to  support  another 
farmer.  The  Englishman,  or  Frenchman,  or 
German,  or  Swede,  can  teach  him  how  not  to  do 
this.  There  are  a  great  many  unprofitable  farms 
near  the  city  of  New  York,  but  when  you  see 
a  small  piece  of  ground  tilled  to  the  full  extent 
of  its  capacity,  and  sending  in  large  loads  of  fat 
vegetables  to  the  city  every  day,  you  may  safely 
bet  that  the  proprietor  is  a  foreigner.  In  one 
neighborhood  very  near  New  York  city,  a  lot  of 
discontented  farmers  are  envious  of  the  pros- 
perity of  one  fellow  who  is  tilling  only  thirteen 
acres,  yet  who  has  saved  enough  money  to  buy 
three  houses  in  the  city  of  New  York,  each  of 
which  yields  him  a  handsome  income.  And  who 
is  this  lucky  fellow  ?  A  highly  educated  Ger- 
man, or  a  scientific  English  farmer  ?  No ;  he  is 


IMMIGRATION.  201 

a  wretched  Laplander,  a  man  who  is  obliged  to 
be  ashamed  of  the  province  which  gave  him 
birth,  and  who  poses  among  acquaintances  as  a 
Swede.  He  was  a  common  farm  laborer  in  his 
own  country,  and  came  here  with  very  little 
more  money  than  would  pay  his  board  at  a  den 
near  the  Battery  for-  two  or  three  days  until  some 
one  should  employ  him.  But  he  had  learned 
how  to  turn  every  scrap  of  soil  to  the  best  ad- 
vantage, how  to  make  the  most  of  all  fertilizers, 
and  how  to  get  the  largest  number  of  crops  out 
of  a  given  amount  of  soil  in  a  given  time. 
During  the  agricultural  depression  of  Great 
Britain  a  few  years  ago,  which  followed  several 
successive  wet  years,  a  number  of  English 
farmers  sold  out  at  a  sacrifice,  came  over  here 
and  located  wherever  best  they  could,  and  it  is 
astonishing  to  see  how  fast  some  of  these  men 
have  got  along,  and  how  well  fixed  they  now  are, 
as  the  saying  is.  They  didn't  seem  to  be  very 
smart  fellows.  In  a  horse-trade,  or  a  shooting- 
match,  or  a  political  squabble,  the  best  of  them 
cannot  hold  his  own  for  five  minutes  with  an  or- 
dinary American.  But  when  it  conies  to  farm- 
ing so  as  to  make  every  resource  of  the  estate 
count  for  all  that  it  is  worth,  they  leave  the 
American  farmer  far  behind. 

Nevertheless,  we  need  to  restrict  and  regulate 
more  systematically,  and  with  more  rigor  than 
we  ever  did  it  before.  Of  course  we  have  the 


202  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

right  to  refuse  absolutely  undesirable  immigrants. 
No  one  can  deny  this  with  any  show  of  reason, 
and  if  we  would  fight  to  maintain  this  principle 
no  nation  could  blame  us.  But  we  also  have  the 
right  to  deny  citizenship  to  workmen  coming 
from  any  portion  of  the  world,  until  we  are  satis- 
fied that  they  intend  to  become  citizens,  and  that 
they  will  be  desirable  acquisitions.  We  are  quite 
competent  to  keep  up  our  own  supply  of  idiots, 
and  paupers  and  criminals.  No  nation  has  a 
monopoly  of  that  sort  of  thing,  and  we  do  quite 
as  well  in  that  way  as  could  be  expected  of  us, 
and  far  better  than  suits  our  tax-payers.  For  the 
freedom  of  mind  and  body,  and  the  prospects  of 
founding  homes  for  all  of  his  posterity,  an  honest 
man  should  be  willing  to  remain  in  this  country 
a  long  time  before  claiming  full  rights  of  citizen- 
ship. There  never  were  any  complaints  under 
the  old  rule,  which  required  a  very  long  term  of 
probation,  and  there  would  be  none  under  the  new. 
Property  rights  of  aliens  are  respected  quite  as 
much  as  those  of  natives,  and  there  is  no  other 
right  in  which  our  laws  distinguish  between  the 
native  and  the  foreigner.  A  chance  tourist  arriv- 
ing here  and  getting  into  legal  difficulty  of  any 
kind  has  quite  as  good  a  chance  of  obtaining 
justice  as  the  richest  man  in  the  nation.  This 
is  not  an  American  idea,  for  foreigners  themselves 
have  said  the  same.  Intelligent  foreigners, 
makers  of  opinion  on  the  other  side  of  the  water, 


IMMIGRATION.  203 

have  marvelled  again  and  again  in  speech  and  in 
print  at  the  carelessness  with  which  America 
admitted  all  classes  of  foreign-born  persons  to  the 
rights  of  citizenship,  and  have  declared  that  were 
citizenship  rights  to  be  delayed  until  the  second 
generation  came  of  adult  age,  there  would  be 
nothing  in  the  law  or  customs  of  the  country 
which  would  give  a  foreign-born  resident  any 
reason  for  complaint. 

Unless  we  restrict  immigration  there  is  nothing 
to  prevent  any  foreign  nation,  desiring  to  pick  a 
quarrel  with  us  so  as  to  steal  some  of  our  property, 
or  have  some  of  her  own  troublesome  inhabitants 
disposed  of  by  bullet  wounds,  or  "to  weld  the 
people  together"  when  they  are  pulling  every 
which  way,  from  sending  a  few  carefully  selected 
men  here  for  the  express  purpose  of  fitting  out  a 
pretended  dynamite  expedition  or  something  of 
the  kind,  for  which  the  United  States  would  be 
called  to  account.  But  that  is  only  part  of  what 
they  can  do.  At  the  present  day  every  German 
and  Frenchman  under  middle  age  has  received  a 
military  training.  There  is  nothing  to  prevent  a 
few  thousand  picked  soldiers,  with  their  officers, 
being  sent  here  in  small  parties  in  the  guise  of 
ordinary  immigrants,  to  rally  and  rise  at  a  given 
signal,  seize  some  of  our  cities,  forts  and  navy- 
yards,  overcome  our  make-believe  army  and  es- 
tablish a  reign  of  terror,  from  which  we  could 
not  release  ourselves  speedily  without  ransom. 


204  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

They  could  find  arms  and  munitions  of  war  with- 
out the  slightest  trouble,  for  such  things  are  on 
sale  to  every  purchaser  in  every  village  in  the 
land,  and  when  desired  in  large  quantities  they 
can  be  purchased  from  any  of  our  large  manu- 
facturers without  the  purchaser  first  undergoing 
the  formality  of  answering  unpleasant  questions. 
As  for  commissariat,  they  could  live  on  the  land. 
There  is  no  portion  of  it  from  which  a  body  of 
armed  men  could  not  obtain  all  they  need  in  the 
way  of  food  and  clothing.  There  would  be  no 
difference  between  such  a  movement  and  the 
insurrections  by  which  almost  all  of  the  older 
nations  have  suffered  from  time  to  time — insur- 
rections some  of  which  have  been  dignified  by 
success  to  the  rank  of  revolutions.  The  mobs 
which  started  the  French  revolution  had  a  large 
army  to  oppose  them,  and  they  had  little  oppor- 
tunity for  arming  and  organizing  themselves, 
nevertheless  they  succeeded  in  overturning  one 
of  the  oldest  monarchies  in  the  world,  and  ap- 
parently one  of  the  strongest. 

Among  the  classes  whom  we  must  most  reso- 
lutely exclude  from  this  country  are  those  which, 
in  good  earnest  and  with  justifiable  sense  of 
wrong,  but  nevertheless  with  utter  disregard  of 
the  land  of  their  adoption,  organize  disturbances 
to  be  carried  on  in  the  lands  from  which  they 
come.  Russian  nihilists,  disaffected  Canadians, 
Irish  dynamiters,  French  socialists  and  anar- 


IMMIGRATION.  205 

chists,  and  all  the  other  broods  of  disturbers  of 
the  peace  of  foreign  lands  are  out  of  place  in  the 
United  States.  Many  of  them  have  abundant 
cause  for  the  hatred  which  they  manifest  toward 
the  governments  from  which  they  have  escaped. 
Most  of  them  have  the  sympathy  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States,  to  the  extent  of  wishing 
that  desirable  reforms  might  be  accomplished  in 
lands  where  any  classes  are  wrongly  treated  or 
find  themselves  at  disadvantage  in  comparison 
with  other  classes  more  favored.  But  this  coun- 
try cannot  afford  to  be  a  hot-bed  of  discontent 
from  which  the  germs  may  be  sent  abroad. 
When  the  time  for  accounting  comes,  the  bill 
will  not  be  sent  to  the  disturbers,  but  to  the 
nation  which  harbored  them.  We  have  been 
dangerously  near  war  with  Great  Britain  two  or 
three  times  on  account  of  the  operations  of  the 
large  class  generally  known  as  Irish  sympa- 
thizers. There  is  probably  no  class  of  foreign- 
born  residents  of  the  United  States  who  have 
more  reason  in  law  and  morals  for  the  feeling 
which  they  manifest  than  these  same  Irish 
sympathizers.  But  when  they  come  here  as 
citizens  the  safety  of  this  country,  which  we  have 
the  right  to  regard  as  an  interest  paramount  to 
that  of  any  other  which  may  exist  in  the  hearts 
of  our  people,  must  rank  first.  If  this  class  or 
any  other  class  of  disturbers  of  the  peace  of 
foreign  countries  persist  in  their  agitation  on  this 


206  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

side  of  the  water,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  nation  to 
expel  them.  Where  they  may  go  is  an  important 
question  to  them,  but  it  is  not  one  with  which 
we  can  afford  to  concern  ourselves.  Perhaps 
there  may  be  individuals  among  us  who  would 
take  personal  friends  into  their  families  with  the 
understanding  that  they  came  there  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  making  trouble  with  their  families ; 
but  nations  have  none  of  that  sort  of  disinterested 
philanthropy.  The  few  that  have  tried  it  cannot 
be  found  to-day  on  the  maps  of  any  well-edited 
atlas. 

The  United  States  has  nothing  to  fear  from 
honest,  well-meaning  immigrants,  no  matter  how 
stupid  they  are.  Transplanting  does  wonders 
for  wild-wood  trees  and  shrubs,  that  amount  to 
nothing  in  their  native  wastes,  and  the  improve- 
ment which  some  unpromising  foreign  stock  has 
often  made  in  this  country  recalls  the  traditional 
remark  of  the  Bad  Habit  to  the  Small  Boy :  "  Look 
at  me  now  and  the  day  you  got  me."  Some  of 
the  most  exquisite  gentlemen  and  able  men  of 
our  land  descended  from  clodhoppers  of  no  one 
nationality,  who  came  to  this  country  only  a 
generation  or  two  ago.  Some  of  the  wisest  and 
grandest  spirits  of  our  revolutionary  periods  were 
descendants  of  articled  servants  who  came  away 
not  many  years  before.  But,  pshaw !  Which  of 
us  who  has  not  pure  Indian  blood  in  his  veins 
did  not  descend  from  immigrants  who  a  little 


IMMIGRATION.  207 

while  ago  were  so  badly  off  in  the  old  country 
that  they  had  to  move  to  get  enough  to  eat  and 
wear  ?  Some  self-appointed  aristocrats  may  ex- 
cept to  this  general  classification,  but  either  they 
lie  or  they  don't  know  why  their  ancestors  came 
here.  No  foreigner  who  is  living  comfortably  at 
home,  and  who  has  nothing  to  be  ashamed  of,  is 
going  to  a  new  country  unless  he  has  some  un- 
rest in  him  which  will  make  him  a  nuisance  if  he 
remains  at  home.  Of  course  political  annoy- 
ances have  been  influential  in  sending  us  many 
immigrants,  but  very  few  from  the  classes  who 
have  any  possible  excuse  for  thinking  themselves 
better  than  other  men.  The  development  of  fine 
natures  from  very  rude  stock  in  the  United  States 
has  been  so  marvellous  in  some  of  its  instances 
as  to  deserve  a  large  book  specially  devoted  to 
the  subject.  A  little  while  ago  it  was  discovered 
that  a  famous  judge,  whose  opinions  and  rulings 
are  held  in  respect  in  courts  of  every  State  of 
this  Union,  was  the  son  of  a  pauper  immigrant. 
A  gentleman  who  was  very  favorably  mentioned 
a  few  years  ago  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency 
of  the  United  States  said  himself  that  his  father, 
who  was  an  immigrant,  was  so  poor  that  the  son 
went  to  school  without  breakfast  for  five  succes- 
sive years,  and  acquaintances  of  this  estimable 
and  highly  cultivated  gentleman,  who  stood  at 
the  very  head  of  one-  of  the  most  learned  profes- 
sions, said  that  the  father  was  unable  to  read  or 


208  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

write  at  the  time  of  his  death.  The  population 
of  the  State  of  California  started  with  men  of  all 
classes  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  Probably 
more  adventurers  and  worthless  men  took  part  in 
the  rush  for  gold  than  can  be  found  in  all  the 
state-prisons  of  the  United  States  at  the  present 
day.  Yet  the  descendants  of  some  of  these  very 
objectionable  characters  are  to-day  men  of  promi- 
nence and  character.  The  natives  of  that  State 
attributed  this  wonderful  change  to  the  "  glorious 
climate  of  California."  But  it  is  not  necessary 
to  make  any  such  explanation.  Cases  of  the 
same  kind,  though  not  perhaps  in  so  large  pro- 
portion, can  be  found  in  all  the  States  of  the 
Union.  It  is  impossible  that  it  should  be  other- 
wise. Whatever  may  happen  to  the  original 
immigrant,  his  posterity  has  as  fair  a  chance  as 
that  of  any  native.  His  children  go  to  the  same 
schools,  the  same  churches,  they  mingle  freely 
with  all  persons  of  their  own  age,  have  the  same 
interests,  same  impulses,  aspirations,  and  oppor- 
tunities. 

There  is  another  great  promise  to  this  country 
also  through  its  immigrant  population,  which 
may  not  be  announced  as  a  fact,  but  which  cer- 
tainly has  a  great  deal  of  probability  in  it.  Mr. 
Darwin,  who  in  tracing  the  descent  of  species 
seemed  to  interest  himself  in  the  descent  of 
everything  else,  explained  once  the  method  by 
which  forests  suddenly  appear  upon  some  tracts 


IMMIGRATION.  209 

of  land  which  apparently  had  been  long  destitute 
of  any  of  the  larger  varieties  of  vegetation.  He 
found  upon  examination  of  one  ^such  tract  that 
while  the  arboreal  shoots  which  had  first  come 
into  view  that  year  were  small,  they  nevertheless 
had  enormous  roots.  Ploughing  and  cultivation 
had  kept  the  soil  above  these  roots  broken  for  a 
great  many  years,  or  cattle  in  grazing  over  the 
ground  had  kept  everything  nipped  short.  Nev- 
ertheless the  roots  or  germs  were  there,  and 
through  the  very  process  of  repression  seemed  to 
accumulate  a  strength  which  they  put  forth,  when 
they  were  allowed  to  do  so,  as  if  they  were 
making  up  for  lost  time,  which  was  exactly  the 
deduction  which  Mr.  Darwin  made  in  longer  and 
more  scholarly  form.  It  is  known  to  breeders  that 
the  strain  of  families  of  various  species  is  fre- 
quently improved  by  infusion  of  the  blood  of  an 
animal  of  the  sort  commonly  known  as  a  "runt;" 
that  is,  one  which  has  been  stunted  in  its  growth. 
The  average  immigrant  is  a  man  who  has  been 
repressed  for  generations  and  perhaps  for  cen- 
turies. When  his  opportunity  for  development 
comes  he  really  seems  to  have  the  capacity  to 
make  up  for  lost  time.  There  is  no  other  way 
of  explaining  the  wonderful  improvement  in 
many  thousands  of  American  families  of  foreign 
extraction.  There  have  been  some  amusing  re- 
sults of  efforts  of  men,  suddenly  become  promi- 
nent and  deservedly  so,  in  tracing  their  ancestry. 

14 


210  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

They  learned  what  Burns  once  expressed  about 
himself  after  he  had  made  similar  investigations : 

"  Through  scoundrels'  blood 
My  race  has  crept,  e'er  since  the  flood." 

The  wonderful  virility  and  prosperity  of  the 
Hebrew  in  this  country,  as  well  as  in  those 
European  countries  where  he  has  been  allowed  a 
chance  beside  his  fellow-men,  cannot  be  explained 
except  upon  this  theory  of  accumulated  strength 
during  long  periods  of  repression. 

Americans  can  stand  all  this  sort  of  thing  that 
Europe  can  bless  us  with.  According  to  stat- 
isticians it  costs  two  or  three  thousand  dollars  to 
bring  a  child  from  the  cradle  up  to  adult  age  and 
working  power.  Consequently  every  able-bodied 
foreigner  we  get  who  is  willing  to  work  is  worth 
two  or  three  thousand  dollars  to  our  nation  and 
is  so  much  capital  in  our  pockets.  Let  us  have 
all  we  can  of  them.  The  men  who  complain  of 
them  are  those  who  are  not  capable  of  taking 
care  of  themselves. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

ANNEXATION. 

THIS  country  has  many  important  duties  to 
fulfil  in  the  family  of  nations,  but  annexation 
of  other  lands  is  not  one  of  them. 

The  contrary  opinion  is  sometimes  expressed, 
but  the  sooner  we  sit  down  upon  it  the  less  likely 
we  are  to  neglect  our  own  business. 

Annexation  is  an  old  business,  and  sometimes 
it  has  been  profitable  ;  but  th»  nations  who  best 
understood  it  have  but  few  of  their  old  posses- 
sions left,  and  they  would  get  rid  of  some  of 
these,  if  they  could  without  being  laughed  at. 

What  nations  could  we  stand  any  fair  chance 
of  annexing?  Perhaps  Mexico,  Canada  and 
some  of  the  West  India  Islands.  What  could 
be  done  with  them  ?  Nothing  that,  in  the  long 
run,  would  benefit  us.  What  would  they  do 
with  us  ?  They  would  merely  introduce  discord- 
ant elements  that  would  not  help  us  a  particle  in 
making  our  own  national  position  secure.  Our 
country  is  so  large  already  that  there  are  jarring 
interests  making  themselves  felt  and  known  in 
Congress,  in  the  press,  in  public  opinion,  and 

(211) 


212  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

with  all  the  efforts  that  have  been  made  they  are 
approaching  solution  at  so  slow  a  rate  that  a 
number  of  the  advocates  of  one  side  or  the  other 
are  discouraged  and  indignant.  There  are  a 
great  many  brilliant  theories  of  what  might  be 
done  by  the  annexation  of  this  or  that  country 
by  the  United  States.  But  an  ounce  of  fact  is 
worth  a  ton  of  theory,  and  fortunately  we  have 
enough  facts  to  keep  us  for  a  long  time  in  exam- 
ination if  we  will  take  the  pains. 

The  ancient  nation  called  Rome  was  the 
champion  annexer  of  the  world.  She  annexed 
every  territory  that  it  was  possible  for  her  sol- 
diers to  reach,  and  at  one  time  the  entire  world 
owed  allegiance  to  Rome.  It  was  practical  alle- 
giance, too,  because  we  read  in  the  Gospel 
according  to  St.  Matthew  that  in  the  days  of 
Augustus  Caesar  there  went  out  a  decree  that  all 
the  world  should  be  taxed.  To  collect  taxes 
from  annexed  countries  is  more  than  some  mod- 
ern nations  have  ever  been  able  to  do.  The  mil- 
itary and  political  prestige  of  Rome  was  after- 
ward strengthened  by  religion.  Rome  ruled  the 
souls  as  well  as  the  bodies  and  estates  of  men, 
but  even  the  Holy  Roman  empire  went  to  pieces. 

Greece  did  a  great  deal  of  annexing  in  the 
days  of  Alexander,  who  penetrated  farther  into 
the  civilizations  of  the  Bast  than  the  legions  of 
the  Caesars  ever  did,  but  Greece  to-day  is  a  mere 
spot  upon  the  map. 


ANNEXATION.  213 

But  it  is  not  necessary  to  go  so  far  back.  The 
great  colonizing  and  annexing  schemes  of  the 
world,  when  nation  after  nation  became  numer- 
ous and  free  enough  to  compete  with  each  other, 
began  soon  after  the  discovery  of  America. 
Nearly  every  European  power  planted  colonies 
in  some  portions  of  the  new  world.  Most  of  these 
powers  exist  and  are  strong  to-day.  But  where 
are  their  colonies  ?  England  has  Canada  to  be 
sure,  simply  because  she  does  not  know  how  to 
get  rid  of  it.  But  Spain  has  not  a  foot  of  ground 
upon  the  mainland  of  America,  and  holds  her 
island  possessions  by  very  uncertain  tenure. 
Look  at  Cuba,  "  the  ever-faithful  island,"  as  she  is 
called,  with  the  greatest  extremity  of  sarcasm. 
The  majority  of  the  inhabitants  detest  the  mother 
country  and  all  the  officials  she  sends  out  there, 
her  taxes  are  paid  grudgingly,  again  and  again 
a  large  minority  of  the  inhabitants  have  struggled 
to  free  themselves  from  the  Spanish  yoke,  and 
the  struggle  will  probably  continue  in  view  of 
the  illustrious  examples  set  by  Mexico  and  all 
the  South  American  republics.  Perhaps  you  will 
say  that  Spain  is  a  bankrupt  old  brute.  Well, 
that  is  not  overstating  the  matter  at  all.  But 
look  from  Spain  to  Holland.  The  Dutch  have 
not  been  cruel  taskmasters.  They  have  planted 
a  number  of  colonies,  and  their  paternal  govern- 
ment, if  characterized  by  thrift,  has  also  been 
unstained  by  any  of  the  cruelties  and  brutalities 


214     -  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

which  have  made  the  name  of  Spain  a  synonym 
for  savagery.  How  many  of  Holland's  colonies 
remain  in  the  possession  of  the  mother  country  ? 
None  of  any  consequence  except  the  island  of 
Java,  and  Java  is  no  longer  a  treasury  for  Hol- 
land. 

France  at  one  time  had  large  colonial  posses- 
sions. She  owned  nearly  one-half  of  the  territory 
now  embraced  by  the  boundaries  of  the  United 
States  and  all  of  Canada  beside.  France  has  now 
a  few  insignificant  islands  and  some  undesirable 
swamp-land  in  Africa,  which  is  valuable  chiefly 
as  a  place  to  send  military  officers  who  are  so 
ambitious  at  home  as  to  be  somewhat  trouble- 
some. Sweden  has  no  colonies  at  all.  Denmark 
has  two  or  three  little  islands  near  the  Equator, 
and  has  an  elephant  on  her  hands  in  the  shape 
of  Iceland. 

But,  you  say  that  England  is  an  exception  to 
all  these  relations.  Well ;  is  she  ?  Do  facts  and 
figures  justify  the  assertion?  The  most  peace- 
able portion  of  the  British  empire  at  the  present 
time  is  the  Dominion  of  Canada.  Canada  gives 
England  absolutely  no  trouble  on  her  own  part. 
Australia  is  about  as  good.  But  of  what  use  is 
either  country  to  England  except  as  a  resort  for 
dissatisfied  Englishmen  who  wish  to  begin  life 
anew  somewhere  else? — an  opportunity  which 
they  could  have  equally  well  if  England  didn't 
own  a  particle  of  soil  outside  the  British  islands. 


ANNEXATION.  215 

But  England  has  a  large  empire  in  the  East. 
She  holds  nearly  all  of  India.  Yes ;  but  how 
does  she  hold  it  ?  Some  of  it  by  absolute  posses- 
sion, and  a  great  deal  through  protectorates  and 
treaties,  through  intrigues  with  native  princes 
and  by  other  means  which  the  people  of  the 
United  States  would  think  beneath  the  dignity 
of  our  own  country  to  exercise  anywhere  else. 
We  know  what  happened  in  India  a  few  years 
ago  when  great  masses  of  people  rose  against 
English  rule,  and  gave  us  the  most  horrible  de- 
tails of  war  that  this  century  has  ever  heard  of. 
England's  unrest  and  uneasiness  about  her  pos- 
sessions in  India  can  be  seen  by  any  one  who 
reads  the  English  newspapers  or  magazines  or 
reviews.  Some  phase  or  other  of  the  Indian 
question  is  continually  popping  up,  and  there 
never  is  anything  in  it  to  pacify  the  national  un- 
rest as  to  the  future  of  the  two  countries.  The 
possibility  of  assimilation  of  the  population  of 
India  and  England  is  laughed  at  by  Englishmen 
of  all  degrees.  Britons  will  not  live  in  India  un- 
less they  are  compelled  to  do  so,  and  also  coaxed 
by  compensation  such  as  Englishmen  never  ex- 
pect to  receive  at  home.  Even  in  the  days  of 
"John  Company"  it  was  impossible  to  keep  an 
army  there  without  double  pay.  I  am  not  cer- 
tain about  the  .private  soldiers,  but  the  officers 
received  their  pay  from  the  home  government  and 


216  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

an  equal  amount  from  the  company,  and  even 
then  the  majority  of  them  were  discontented. 

As  for  the  natives  liking  England  or  Bnglish 
habits  or  English  customs,  it  would  be  unreason- 
able to  expect  it,  even  did  not  facts  prove  that  it 
is  impossible.  Native  Indians  of  wealth  and 
intelligence  frequently  visit  England  but  very 
few  remain.  What  is  called  the  superior  civiliza- 
tion of  the  West  has  no  charms  for  them.  And 
they  don't  take  English  customs  and  principles 
home  with  them  to  disseminate  among  their  own 
class  and  the  orders  beneath  it.  Many  intelligent 
natives  will  admit  that  portions  of  the  country 
are  better  ruled  than  they  were  under  the  native 
princes  a  hundred  or  more  years  ago.  But  at 
heart  the  feeling  is  that  the  old  ways,  if  not  the 
best,  are  certainly  the  most  desirable  and  the 
most  fitted  to  the  nature  of  the  people.  England 
is  in  chronic  fear  of  uprisings  and  disturbances. 
Her  most  statesmanlike  public  officials  and  her 
ablest  soldiers  are  sent  to  India;  not  enough  of 
them  can  be  spared  even  to  cross  the  channel  to 
Ireland. 

And,  speaking  of  Ireland,  which  is  another  of 
Great  Britain's  annexations,  is  there  a  more 
prominent  and  damning  disgrace  existing  in  the 
name  of  any  civilized  government  of  the  world  ? 
It  is  not  necessary  to  go  over  the  Irish  question 
at  all.  Every  man  knows  enough  about  it  to 
know  that  England's  rule  of  Ireland  has  been  an 


ANNEXATION.  217 

entire  and  disgraceful  failure,  and  that  with 
ample  opportunities  for  colonization,  for  main- 
taining military  establishments,  for  pacifying  the 
people,  Bngland  has  persistently  and  continu- 
ously failed  to  make  Ireland  anything  but  a  hot- 
bed of  hatred. 

Where  England  is  at  peace  with  her  colonies, 
what  price  does  she  pay  ?  Why,  she  simply 
makes  them  almost  absolutely  independent  of 
the  home  government.  Except  nominal  alle- 
giance to  the  motljer  country  and  the  acceptance 
of  a  viceroy,  governor-general,  or  representative 
of  the  throne  by  some  title  or  other,  these  coun- 
tries are  almost  as  free  of  England  as  the  United 
States.  They  have  their  own  parliaments,  elect 
their  own  officials,  make  their  own  laws,  assess 
their  own  taxes,  and  even  perpetrate  huge  tariff 
lists,  under  which  the  products  of  the  mother 
country  are  obliged  to  pay  handsomely  for  being 
admitted  at  all.  The  only  bond  between  Canada 
or  Australia  and  England  is  one  of  affection  to 
the  mother  country.  This  sometimes  endures  to 
the  second  generation,  but  there  is  precious  little 
of  it  in  the  third.  You  can  easily  enough  find 
that  out  for  yourself  by  going  up  to  Canada  and 
becoming  acquainted  in  almost  any  town  in  the 
Dominion.  It  seems  farcical,  but  it  is  neverthe- 
less a  fact,  that  the  best  English  citizens  in  Can- 
ada are  Frenchmen,  descendants  of  the  original 
settlers  who  fought  England  furiously  and  often 


218  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

successfully  for  more  than  a  hundred  years. 
And  the  only  ground  for  the  loyalty  of  these 
people  is  apparently  that  there  is  no  other  place 
for  them  to  go,  and  no  way  to  take  with  them 
what  little  they  possess. 

Australia  is  just  as  independent  as  Canada. 
If  she  should  attempt  to  secede  and  declare  her- 
self as  independent  as  she  really  is,  England 
would  probably  send  down  fleets  and  armies,  and 
there  would  be  war  for  a  long  time,  with  the  same 
result  in  the  end  that  followed  the  attempt  to 
change  the  opinions  of  the  thirteen  colonies  who 
organized  this  nation  of  ours.  England's  rule  of 
the  United  States  certainly  was  not  severe.  Now 
that  the  spirit  of  the  Revolution  has  been  watered 
out  through  two  or  three  generations,  it  is  per- 
fectly safe  to  admit  that  England  never  took  as 
much  money  out  of  this  country  as  she  put  into 
it.  So,  regarded  as  a  business  enterprise,  annex- 
ation or  colonization  did  not  pay  here.  As  soon 
as  she  began  to  demand  taxes'  from  the  colonies 
the  revolt  began.  The  question  of  her  moral 
right  is  one  that  is  not  discussed  now.  Discus- 
sion would  not  do  any  good.  But  if  taxes  cannot 
be  levied  upon  a  colony  or  an  annexed  country, 
of  what  possible  service  is  the  new  land  to  the 
old? 

Well,  what  is  our  lesson  from  all  this  ?  What 
would  be  the  result  of  our  annexing  either  Mex- 
ico, Canada,  or  Cuba,  for  instance,  to  say  nothing 


ANNEXATION.  219 

of  the  small  republics  in  the  Caribbean  Sea  and 
in  Central  America,  toward  which  some  of  our 
demagogues  have  occasionally  pretended  to  cast 
longing  eyes,  and  found  a  few  fools  to  encourage 
them  in  doing  so  ?  It  would  be  utterly  impossible 
under  the  spirit  of  our  institutions  for  us  to  treat 
any  such  land  as  a  conquered  country.  The 
Declaration  of  Independence  would  have  to  be 
completely  overturned  before  we  could  consist- 
ently enter  upon  any  such  custom.  The  most 
that  we  could  do  would  be  to  admit  these  coun- 
tries as  portions  of  the  Union.  We  would  scarcely 
pretend  to  obtain  them  by  force  for  this  purpose, 
but  if  we  were  to  want  to  get  them  peaceably, 
what  would  be  the  only  method?  Why,  by 
granting  them  equal  rights  with  our  own  citizens. 
Successful  annexation  would  depend  upon  the 
acquiescence  of  the  majority  of  the  inhabitants 
of  the  countries  alluded  to.  These  people,  like 
people  everywhere  else,  have  leaders  of  their  own. 
All  leaders  have  aspirations  and  personal  ambi- 
tions, and  personal  pockets  which  never  are  suffi- 
ciently full.  We  would  have  to  provide  for  them 
first  before  we  could  be  certain  of  the  people. 
We  would  be  obliged  to  divide  each  country  into 
States  bearing  some  proportion  of  population  to 
those  which  we  already  have.  We  would  be 
obliged  to  give  them  representation  in  both  Houses 
of  Congress,  provide  judicial  systems  for  them, 
and  in  every  way  recognize  them  as  our  equals. 


220  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

Now,  the  truth  is,  no  sane  American  believes 
the  people  of  any  of  those  countries  to  be  equal 
to  those  of  our  own.  There  are  intelligent  Mex- 
icans and  Cubans  and  Canadians,  but  we  as  a 
body  have  very  little  respect  for  the  general  run 
of  people  in  those  countries ;  no  more  respect 
than  their  own  rulers  have,  and  that  is  very 
little.  Some  exception  must  be  made  in  the  case 
of  Canada,  which  is  inhabited,  so  far  as  the  whites 
are  concerned,  mainly  by  intelligent  people.  But 
Mexico,  according  to  its  own  statesmen  and  ac- 
cording to  all  travellers  who  have  been  in  it,  is 
practically  a  semi-civilized  country.  The  most 
of  the  inhabitants  are  deplorably  ignorant.  Free- 
dom of  ballot  is  an  utter  farce.  Law  is  a  matter 
of  barter,  and  life  and  property,  while  nominally 
secure,  are  frequently  threatened  by  uprisings 
which  no  local  government  has  yet  been  able  to 
promptly  suppress,  and  which  certainly  could 
not  be  suppressed  by  a  central  government  three 
thousand  miles  away  with  an  army  of  the  con- 
ventional size  of  that  of  the  United  States. 

Cuba  is  worse  than  Mexico  rather  than  better. 
Cuba  has  been  in  a  condition  of  discontent  and 
disturbance  for  so  long  that  there  are  but  few 
portions  of  the  island  on  which  life  and  property 
are  safe.  The  majority  of  the  voters  can  be  pur- 
chased at  any  election  time  for  a  very  small  out- 
lay of  money  or  rum,  and  the  same  purchased 
voters  could  be  persuaded  by  similar  means  to 


ANNEXATION.  221 

rise  within  a  week  against  the  newly  elected 
authorities,  even  if  all  happened  to  be  their  own 
candidates  for  office.  The  class  of  representa- 
tives which  Cuba  would  be  obliged  to  send  to 
Washington  could  not  possibly  be  expected  to 
have  any  interest  in  national  legislation  except 
such  as  pertained  to  their  own  portion  of  the 
land.  They  have  no  sympathies  of  any  sort  with 
any  portion  of  the  people  or  industries  or  aspira- 
tions of  the  United  States.  It  would  be  unfair  to 
expect  it  of  them.  By  birth  and  tradition  they 
are  radically  different  from  us.  Their  isolation 
from  us  would  be  none  the  less  even  were  they 
part  of  our  country,  and  the  consequence  would 
be  an  alien  class,  demanding  everything  and 
yielding  nothing,  exactly  what  would  be  the  case 
were  we  to  annex  Mexico. 

Canada  may  drift  to  us  in  time.  Some  states- 
men on  both  sides  of  the  line  regard  this  as  in- 
evitable. Well,  what  must  be  will  be.  But  be- 
fore any  such  marriage  of  nations  there  ought  to 
be  a  long  courtship  between  the  parties.  At 
present  there  is  no  love  whatever  between  them, 
and  until  there  is  a  marked  change  in  this  respect 
the  union  would  be  too  utterly  selfish  on  each 
side  to  be  safe  for  either.  We  want  some,  things 
from  Canada,  it  is  true.  We  have  used  up  most 
of  our  visible  supply  of  standing  timber,  and  we 
could  find  enough  in  Canada  for  a  century  to 
come  to  make  up  for  all  deficiencies.  But  what 


222  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

else  would  we  get?  Very  little.  We  assume 
that  Canada  will  buy  a  great  deal  from  us.  But 
it  does  not  seem  to  occur  to  the  majority  of  our 
people  that  Canada  is  not  a  large  purchasing 
country.  Canada  has  not  only  no  rich  class,  as 
we  regard  the  expression,  but  her  well-to-do  class 
is  poor,  and  the  majority  of  her  people  are  not 
only  very  poor,  but  have  very  few  needs  and  de- 
mands to  be  supplied  even  had  they  unlimited 
means.  The  French  Canadians,  who  are  probably 
the  most  industrious  of  the  population,  live  more 
plainly  than  any  American  would  believe  until 
he  had  travelled  in  the  country  largely.  They 
are  so  poor  that  they  regard  themselves  in  para- 
dise financially  whefi  they  can  find  occupation 
upon  American  fishing  vessels  and  in  American 
factories.  The  pay  of  factory  hands  in  the  East- 
ern States  is  very  small,  as  the  trades'  unions 
have  informed  us  frequently  and  without  any 
exaggeration,  but  it  is  infinitely  better  than  any- 
thing that  the  young  men  and  young  women  of 
Lower  Canada  could  find  at  home.  The  home 
of  the  French  Canadian,  who  seems  to  be  entirely 
contented,  contains  so  little  furniture  that  to  the 
poor  mechanic  of  a  Northern  city  it  would  seem 
very  bare  and  empty.  The  farming  population 
of  English  birth  is  better  off,  lives  better  and  has 
broader  and  more  expensive  tastes.  But  it  is  one 
thing  to  have  tastes  and  quite  a  different  thing 
to  have  the  means  to  gratify  them.  The  means 


ANNEXATION.  223 

would  not  be  any  greater  if  those  people  were 
citizens  of  the  United  States  than  they  are  now. 

One  thing  we  would  receive  in  bountiful  meas- 
ure from  Canada  were  we  to  annex  her,  and  that 
is  debt.  She  is  loaded  with  debt  in  proportion 
to  the  assessed  value  of  everything  within  her 
borders  about  five  times  as  heavily  as  the  United 
States,  and  let  no  one  imagine  that  the  Canadian 
is  going  to  be  fool  enough  to  become  part  of  our 
country  and  pay  a  proportion  of  our  debts  with- 
out having  her  own  debts  paid  by  us.  The 
Canadian  debt  and  ours  would  have  to  be  amal- 
gamated, with  the  result  that  each  individual 
taxpayer  of  the  United  States  would  have  to 
take  a  share  in  paying,  literally  paying,  for 
Canada. 

I  know  that  a  great  deal  is  said  about  the  vex- 
atious questions  that  would  be  entirely  disposed 
of  were  Canada  to  become  part  of  this  Union. 
But  would  we  really  get  rid  of  them  ?  All  of  the 
territory  to  the  north  of  us  is  not  strictly  Cana- 
dian. Some  of  it  still  belongs  to  Bngland,  and 
even  if  England  were  quite  willing  to  be  entirely 
rid  of  the  Dominion,  she  would  keep  a  foothold 
here  if  only  for  the  purpose  of  having  a  source 
of  food  supply  from  the  fisheries.  Nearly  two 
hundred  years  ago,  when  the  British  islands  were 
nowhere  near  as  populous  as  at  present,  and  the 
sea  yielded  a  bountiful  harvest  all  along  the 
British  coast,  England  fought  France  savagely 


224  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

on  the  fisheries  question,  and  America  so  fully 
sympathized  with  her  as  to  assist  her  to  the  best 
of  her  ability.  So,  as  long  as  Hngland  is  any- 
where on  our  border,  it  would  be  useless  to  im- 
agine ourselves  rid  of  her  as  a  possible  enemy. 
She  could  concentrate  troops  and  munitions  of 
war  quite  as  easily  upon  any  large  island  or  point 
of  the  upper  half  of  North  America  as  she  can  in 
Canada.  She  might  not  be  quite  so  near  our 
border  or  have  so  many  opportunities  for  crossing, 
but  she  would  be  far  enough  away  for  us  not  to 
be  able  to  watch  her  so  closely. 

The  only  purposes  of  annexation,  now  that 
men  are  no  longer  stolen  and  killed  for  the  nomi- 
nal reason  that  we  wish  to  make  Christians  of 
them,  are  to  get  something  worth  having  for  its 
own  sake  or  to  find  a  place  of  overflow  for  surplus 
population.  None  of  our  neighbors  are  rich  ex- 
cept in  debt.  They  have  nothing  we  want  which 
we  cannot  get  cheaper  by  purchase  than  at  the 
expense  of  time,  money  and  patience  that  even 
peaceable  annexation  would  require. 

As  for  receptacles  of  overflow,  we  already  have 
enough  to  last  us  a  century  or  two.  Do  not  take 
any  stock  in  the  story  that  there  is  no  more  gov- 
ernment land  worth  having,  and  that  there  are 
no  more  chances  for  the  poor  man  in  the  United 
States.  I  know  that  such  stories  are  told  fre- 
quently by  those  who  are  supposed  to  know  most 
about  it.  The  younger  men  of  the  farming  com- 


ANNEXATION.  225 

niunities  of  the  West,  some  thousands  of  them, 
have  been  howling  for  years  to  be  allowed  to 
enter  the  so-called  territory  of  Oklahoma.  But 
if  to  each  of  the  majority  of  these  men  were  given 
a  quarter  section  of  land  in  the  Garden  of  Para- 
dise as  it  existed  before  the  fall  of  Adam,  they 
would  still  be  looking  out  for  some  new  location. 
There  is  a  great  floating,  discontented  mass  of 
people  in  the  new  countries.  The  proportion  is 
quite  as  great  as  it  is  in  the  large  cities.  There 
are  many  farmers  in  the  West  who  have  occupied 
half  a  dozen  different  homesteads  on  pre-emption 
claims  in  succession,  turned  up  a  little  ground, 
built  some  sort  of  house  which  never  was  finished, 
become  discouraged  or  disheartened  or  restless, 
sold  out  at  a  loss  or  abandoned  their  claims,  put 
their  portable  property  in  a  wagon  or  boat  and 
started  in  search  of  some  new  country.  Their 
impulse  seems  to  be  exactly  that  of  the  small 
boy  who  is  out  fishing.  He  always  seems  to 
think  the  fish  will  bite  better  a  little  further  on, 
either  up  or  down  the  stream,  it  does  not  matter 
which,  and  he  rambles  from  one  to  the  other  be- 
cause rambling  is  a  great  deal  easier  work  than 
fishing.  The  unsurveyed  territory  of  the  United 
States  is  still  enormous.  Between  the  city  of 
New  York  and  the  Ohio  river  there  are  still  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  acres  of  good  land  which 
never  echoed  the  sound  of  the  lumberman's  axe 
nor  heard  the  ploughman's  whistle  or  oath. 

15 


226  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

Several  years  ago  the  president  of  a  prominent 
railway  corporation,  a  trunk  line,  said  to  me  that 
there  were  hundreds  of  miles  of  his  company's 
land  which  never  contributed  in  any  way  to  the 
support  of  the  road.  It  produced  nothing,  and 
scarcely  anything  was  carried  over  the  road  to  it. 
And  he  wanted  to  know  if  I  could  give  him  any 
possible  reason  why  immigrants  by  hundreds 
went  over  the  line  to  points  a  thousand  miles 
away  when  so  much  good  land  was  awaiting  till- 
age, and  was  several  hundred  miles  nearer  mar- 
kets than  the  country  to  which  they  were  going. 
I  could  not,  except  to  suggest  that  it  was  human 
nature  to  imagine  that  the  places  which  were  fur- 
therest  away  offered  the  greatest  advantages. 

Why,  even  in  the  State  of  New  York,  with  its 
five  or  six  million  inhabitants,  there  are  large 
counties,  and  not  in  the  Adirondack  region  either, 
of  which  not  more  than  half  the  good  land  is 
under  cultivation  to-day.  The  land  is  not  bad,  the 
distance  from  rail  communication  and  from  mar- 
kets is  not  great.  Everything  is  more  favorable 
to  the  settler  than  in  some  portions  of  the  West- 
ern States  that  are  filling  up  rapidly,  and  yet  the 
immigrant  passes  all  these  localities  and  goes 
further  away,  and  he  who  already  is  there  is 
often  dissatisfied  and  anxious  to  sell  out  and  go 
somewhere  apparently  for  no  other  purpose  ex- 
cept to  get  a  new  start.  The  hill  countries  of 
xll  the  older  States  still  contain  immense  quanti- 


ANNEXATION.  22 1 

ties  of  valuable  ground  which  might  be  made  to 
yield  more  profitable  crops  per  acre  than  any- 
body's wheat-land  in  the  most  favored  sections 
of  the  United  States.  The  ground  that  the  State 
of  Tennessee  some  years  ago  placed  upon  the 
market  at  six  cents  an  acre  so  as  to  have  it  in 
personal  instead  of  public  possession,  and  with 
the  hope  of  getting  a  little  something  out  of  it  in 
the  way  of  taxes,  is  as  good  as  many  of  the  more 
valuable  portions  of  the  Eastern  States.  The 
entire  table-land  of  the  mountain  range  that  sepa- 
rates the  Eastern  States  from  the  West  is  but 
sparsely  inhabited.  Not  much  of  it  can  be  util- 
ized for  large  planting  of  staple  crops,  but  all 
of  it  is  valuable  for  something  that  might  be 
turned  to  profit.  It  is  better  ground  than  the 
Switzers  live  well  on  in  their  native  country  and 
far  better  naturally  than  that  of  some  of  the 
more  prosperous  provinces  of  France.  On  the 
basis  of  the  population  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
which  State  certainly  is  not  overcrowded  in 
its  agricultural  districts,  this  nation  has  room 
for  all  people  who  will  be  born  in  it  or  who  by 
any  possibility  can  immigrate  to  it  for  two  or 
three  centuries  to  come. 

We  need  no  place  of  overflow  for  any  of  our 
population  that  is  not  criminal,  and  this  class  can 
be  trusted  to  find  its  own  outlets  and  places  of 
refuge  without  any  assistance  from  the  govern- 
ment or  the  people. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  COLORED   MAN. 

NATIONS,  as  well  as  the  people  who  compose 
them,  must  have  some  subject  to  quarrel  about 
among  themselves  when  everything  else  is  lovely ; 
something  which  has  so  many  sides  that  no  one 
party  or  individual  can  change  it. 

In  the  United  States  this  subject  is  the  colored 
man ;  not  exactly  that,  either,  but  the  colored 
man  in  the  South.  There  are  plenty  of  colored 
men  in  the  North,  but  there  is  no  political  ques- 
tion regarding  them  here.  More  than  half  a 
million  of  the  colored  population  of  the  Union 
reside  in  the  Northern  States,  and  whoever  heard 
of  them  being  made  an  issue  in  any  political 
campaign,  much  less  a  burning  question  between 
general  elections  ? 

And  yet  the  two  sections  in  regard  to  the 
colored  man  resemble  each  other  greatly  in  many 
essential  features.  The  colored  men  of  the  North, 
like  those  of  the  South,  are  ex-slaves  or  the  de- 
scendants of  slaves.  It  was  not  so  many  years 
ago  that  slavery  was  general  throughout  the 
Union.  The  South  says  that  the  North  abolished 

(228) 


THE  COLORED  MAN.  229 

slavery  within  its  own  borders  merely  because  it 
didn't  pay.  This  may  be  so,  for  the  South  itself 
is  now  inclined  to  acknowledge  that  slavery 
didn't  pay  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line 
either. 

And  yet  our  Northern  blacks  are  exactly  like 
the  others :  descendants  of  savage  races  who  in- 
habited utterly  uncivilized  portions  of  Africa, 
who  were  brought  over  here  unwillingly,  put  to 
work  under  duress  and  fear  of  punishment,  and 
learned  what  little  they  know  under  the  lash. 

And  yet  we  have  a  great  many  prosperous 
colored  people  in  the  North ;  men  who  own 
houses  and  are  transacting  businesses  in  which 
they  have  the  competition,  the  esteem,  and  some- 
times the  fear  of  their  white  competitors. 

Why,  even  twenty-five  years  ago,  during  the 
general  election  of  1864,  when  the  soldiers  of  the 
Union  army  were  allowed  to  vote  by  commission 
and  certificate,  I  chanced  to  be  present  in  one 
camp  where,  in  all  the  company  of  about  eighty 
colored  men,  twenty-seven  were  entitled  to  the 
ballot  in  the  State  of  New  York.  Yet  at  that 
time  no  colored  man  could  vote  in  New  York 
unless  he  was  worth  two  hundred  and  fifty  dol- 
lars in  real  estate  according  to  the  assessors' 
list.  In  how  many  white  companies  of  soldiers, 
think  you,  were  there  as  many  men  who  could 
have  voted  had  there  been  such  a  restriction 
upon  them  ? 


230  OUR  COUNTRY'S   FUTURE. 

How  did  these  Northern  negroes  reach  such 
position  and  property  as  they  now  possess? 
Certainly  not  through,  any  assistance  they  re- 
ceived from  white  neighbors.  A  great  deal  of 
sentiment  has  been  expended  and  perhaps  felt  in 
the  North  regarding  the  negro,  but  it  always 
was  the  Southern  negro — the  man  in  bondage. 
Southerners  are  quite  right  in  saying  that  the 
colored  people  as  a  class  are  treated  with  more 
familiarity  and  consideration  in  the  South  than 
at  the  North.  Colored  people  have  never  been 
the  equal  of  the  whites,  according  to  any  class 
of  society  in  the  North,  not  even  the  practical 
abolitionists.  They  have  been  compelled  to  keep 
by  themselves ;  and  to  this  day  a  colored  man 
can  make  a  great  stir  and  arouse  a  great  deal  of 
indignation  by  buying  a  first-class  seat  in  any 
Northern  theatre,  or  a  high-priced  pew  in  any 
Northern  church. 

And  yet  we  have  no  color-line  or  color-question 
up  here.  And,  as  you  may  occasionally  have 
heard,  they  do  have  one  down  South.  What  is 
the  reason  for  the  difference  ?  It  is  simply  that 
the  solid  South  is  an  absolute  necessity  to  two 
political  parties,  one  of  which  is  the  Republican 
and  the  other  the  Democratic.  At  present  there 
is  no  third  party  that  is  likely  to  have  the  power 
to  break  these  two  combined. 

Of  course  we  all  have  heard  that  the  solid 
South,  so-called,  is  a  condition  of  affairs  to  be 


THE   COLORED   MAN.  231 

deplored  by  all  right-minded  citizens.  Republi- 
cans make  the  most  of  it,  which  means  a  great 
deal,  at  every  general  election,  and  at  many 
State  elections  at  the  North,  and  even  in  contests 
over  the  petty  offices  in  small  towns  the  Southern 
question  is  almost  always  likely  to  be  lugged  in 
even  by  the  heels.  In  the  South  the  same  sub- 
ject comes  up  in  another  form.  The  South  is 
urged  to  remain  solid  for  fear  of  negro  domina- 
tion, and  Northern  influence  by  means  of  the 
negro.  • 

Of  course  this  is  all  nonsense  upon  both  sides, 
and  no  one  knows  it  better  than  those  who  talk 
it  most.  There  is  no  more  danger  to  either 
party  through  the  existence  of  the  "  Solid 
South  "  than  there  is  to  the  country  in  general 
from  the  smallest  church  or  denomination  which 
is  solid  within  itself.  But  how  could  either 
party  hold  together  without  this  shibboleth? 
The  Republican  tells  you  of  outrages  against 
the  Southern  blacks,  and  insists  that  they  would 
all  be  reduced  to  slavery  were  it  not  due  to  the 
constant  agitation  of  the  negro's  old-time  friend, 
the  Republican  party  of  the  North.  That  a  con- 
stitutional amendment  would  be  necessary  to 
bring  this  about  is  not  mentioned  by  any  of 
these  partisan  politicians  for  the  best  of  reasons. 
They  tell  us  also  that  we  will  never  have  a  fair 
representation  of  the  interests  of  the  country 
until  all  the  Southern  blacks  have  full  and  free 


232  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

right  to  vote,  and  we  hear  awful  stories  of  intim- 
idation at  the  polls. 

Now  the  honest  truth  is,  as  every  man  can  as- 
certain from  the  census  reports  of  the  United 
States,  that  if  every  colored  man  in  the  South 
were  to  vote,  and  to  vote  the  Republican  ticket, 
it  would  be  almost  impossible  to  put  any  State 
once  more  into  the  hands  of  the  blacks.  That 
there  were  colored  senators  and  colored  legisla- 
tures during  the  two  years  immediately  follow- 
ing the  war  was  due  to  the  temporary  disfran- 
chisement  of  a  great  many  white  men.  But 
that  time  has  passed.  Political  disabilities  have 
been  removed  from  all  except  a  few  irrecon- 
cilables  who  continue  to  make  it  a  matter  of 
pride  that  they  have  never  asked  to  be  placed 
upon  an  equal  footing  with  the  rest  of  their  fel- 
low-citizens. 

Besides,  all  the  blacks  would  not  vote  the  Re- 
publican ticket.  The  negroes  as  a  class  may  be 
stupid,  but  there  are  individuals  who  are  a  long 
remove  from  idiocy,  and  they  are  going  to  vote 
according  to  their  own  opinions  of  men  and 
measures,  regardless  of  what  the  majority  of 
their  race  may  do.  There  are  strong  Democrats 
among  the  blacks  in  every  Southern  State,  ap- 
parently in  every  Southern  county,  and  they  are 
quite  able  to  give  a  reason  for  the  faith  that  is  in 
them.  Black  men,  like  white  men,  are  strongly 
influenced  at  the  polls  by  their  own  business  and 


THE  COLORED  MAN.  233 

personal  interests,  and,  so  long  as  the  two  races 
are  obliged  to  do  business  with  each  other,  a  great 
many  thousand  blacks  in  each  State  are  going  to 
vote  according  to  the  political  ideas  of  the  white 
men  who  control  their  fortunes  and  prospects  to 
a  large  degree. 

The  South  is  very  fond  of  saying  that  the  ne- 
gro is  so  lazy  that  if  he  had  any  political  ascen- 
dency at  all,  even  in  a  congressional  district  or  a 
town,  he  would  make  it  impossible  for  a  white 
man  to  live  there,  hold  his  property  and  trans- 
act his  business.  How  utterly  ridiculous  and 
groundless  this  plea  is  is  known  to  thousands 
of  newspaper  men  and  commercial  travellers  who 
have  spent  a  little  time  in  the  South  and  have 
kept  their  eyes  free  from  political  scales  of  any 
kind.  The  colored  man  is  leisurely;  there  is  no 
denying  that.  But  it  is  impossible  for  the  white 
man  in  the  North  to  be  long  in  the  South  with- 
out discovering  that  the  Southern  white  also  is 
slow,  and  does  no  more  work  than  he  is  ab- 
solutely compelled  to  do.  It  is  not  a  matter  of 
color  at  all ;  it  is  strictly  one  of  climate  and  ne- 
cessity. The  negro,  being  of  a  lower  race,  is 
willing  to  subsist  upon  less  than  the  white  man. 
He  may  eat  quite  as  much,  but  he  is  not  particu- 
lar about  the  quality  of  his  food  so  long  as  there 
is  enough  of  it,  and  the  only  luxuries  for  which 
he  has  any  longing  are  tobacco  and  whiskey. 
No  matter  how  well  off  he  becomes,  how  many 


234  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

acres  of  land  he  succeeds  in  possessing,  he  gen- 
erally lives  in  an  humble  cabin  which  contains 
nothing  of  what  white  men  recognize  as  the 
necessities  and  luxuries  of  life. 

But  is  the  negro  lazy  ?  If  he  is,  why  is  it 
that  the  South,  with  little  more  population  than 
she  had  thirty  years  ago,  raises  twice  as  much 
cotton  as  she  used  to,  besides  a  great  many 
staples  for  which  at  one  time  she  was  absolutely 
compelled  to  depend  upon  the  North.  All  of  us 
have  published  in  our  respective  papers  reports 
and  statistics  of  the  rapid  increase  of  manufact- 
uring interests  in  different  portions  of  the  South 
and  of  new  methods  of  planting,  and  larger  range 
of  plantation  crops,  than  the  South  dreamed  of 
before  the  war.  Is  all  this  the  result  of  white 
men  working  harder  ?  If  it  is,  the  white  men  of 
the  South  themselves  don't  know  it.  Some  have 
gone  to  work  who  never  worked  before.  But  the 
man  who  in  old  times  could  enjoy  abundant  lei- 
sure and  live  upon  the  results  of  the  labor  of  his 
slaves  is  not  as  frequently  found  as  Republican 
partisans  and  howling  abolitionists  would  have 
us  believe.  A  little  figuring  will  convince  any 
one  that  the  entire  number  of  slaves  in  the  South 
before  the  war  did  not  average  two  to  each  family, 
and  in  the  towns  the  ownership  of  negroes  was 
the  exception  instead  of  the  rule.  A  few  men, 
comparatively  few,  who  were  very  rich  and  had 
large  estates,  inherited  with  their  lands  a  great 


THK    COLORKI)    MAX. 

number  of  slaves,  and  were  continually  obliged 
to  add  to  the  number.  But  how  many  of  them 
ever  became  millionaires  ?  In  fact,  did  any  one 
ever  hear  of  a  Southern  millionaire  before  the 
war,  unless  his  money  was  made  by  trade  in  one 
of  the  larger  Southern  cities  or  seaports  ? 

The  Southern  negroes  do  work.  Not  all  of 
them,  it  is  true ;  but  among  all  the  lower  classes 
of  mankind  the  reluctance  to  work,  unless  abso- 
lutely compelled,  is  a  marked  feature.  A  good 
deal  can  be  said  in  the  North  b}^  any  one  who  is 
not  a  politician,  and  who  never  expects  to  run 
for  office,  about  disinclination  to  work  as  mani- 
fested in  the  lower  classes  of  Germans,  Irishmen, 
Poles,  Hungarians,  and  people  of  every  other 
nationality  who  have  come  to  our  shores,  but  it 
is  a  fact  which  may  be  demonstrated  by  the 
records  of  any  registrar's  office  of  any  county  in 
the  South  that  the  negroes  as  a  class  have  been 
very  anxious  to  acquire  land  and  make  small 
farms,  if  not  plantations,  for  themselves,  and  that 
the  number  of  land-owners  among  the  race  which 
could  not  own  a  foot  of  land  thirty  years  ago  is 
now  very  large.  They  are  as  eager  to  possess 
land  as  the  French  peasants  of  to-day,  whose 
avidity  to  become  proprietors  has  not  changed  a 
particle  since  the  end  of  the  old  feudal  system, 
when  every  man  not  a  noble  was  obliged  to  hire 
land  from  those  who  had  inherited  it.  The  old 
political  demand  of  the  blacks  for  forty  acres  and 


236  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

a  mule  sounded  ridiculous,  but  there  was  a  great 
deal  of  promise  in  it,  a  promise  which  has  since 
brought  forth  more  performance  than  the  negro's 
most  intelligent  friends  in  the  North  had  dared 
to  expect. 

Consult  a  few  of  our  enterprising  Hebrew 
fellow-citizens  who  have  gone  into  business  in 
the  South  about  the  capacity  of  the  negro  for 
work,  and  they  will  admit  to  you  that,  although 
the  blacks  might  do  much  more  without  hurting 
themselves,  they  still  raise  large  enough  crops  to 
be  his  very  best  customers.  The  Hebrew  in  the 
United  States  is  a  pretty  good  indication  of  the 
commercial  condition  of  any  given  part  of  the 
country.  When  he  goes  into  business  it  is  not 
for  sentimental  reasons,  and  when  he  starts  a 
general  store  at  a  Southern  cross-roads,  or  rail- 
way-station, or  post-office,  it  means  that  he  sees 
an  opportunity  for  making  some  money  there. 
Of  course,  the  whites  also  trade  with  him,  for  he 
has  an  admirable  business  faculty  for  being  the 
only  merchant  in  the  vicinity  and  for  starting  a 
store  where  no  competitor  is  to  be  found.  Never- 
theless the  commercial  traveller  or  drummer  who 
stands  in  one  of  these  stores  for  a  little  while 
will  see  by  the  manner  of  the  enterprising  mer- 
chant towards  his  colored  customers  either  that 
the  ex-slave  is  raising  a  pretty  good  crop  that 
year,  or  that  the  Hebrew  is  going  into  the  mis- 


THE  COLORED  MAN.  237 

sionary  business  to  an  extent  of  which  his  race 
has  never  been  suspected. 

Alluding  once  more  to  our  Hebrew  friend,  who 
is  of  immense  service  to  the  South,  it  is  worth 
while  to  remark  that  he  does  not  always  sell  for 
cash,  but  on  the  contrary  extends  credit  to  the 
colored  man  just  as  the  Western  merchant  does 
to  the  white  farmer  in  his  own  vicinity.  That  is 
a  better  proof  that  the  negro  will  work  than  all 
the  argument  that  could  be  devised  by  the  most 
skilful  and  determined  advocate  of  the  reju- 
venated Anglo-African  race.  He  is  not  going  to 
trust  any  customer  further  than  the  probable 
ability  to  pay.  He  bases  his  loan  or  credit  partly 
on  the  probable  yield  of  the  man's  farm,  but 
largely  on  the  individual  industry  and  ability  of 
the  owner.  This  is  placing  the .  black  on  a  level 
of  practical  equality  with  the  white,  and  doing  it 
for  the  soundest,  because  the  most  material, 
reason  that  possibly  can  be  imagined. 

But  do  Southern  merchants  trust  all  Southern 
blacks  ?  Well,  in  the  language  of  the  street,  I 
should  smile.  Do  you  know  of  any  Northern 
merchant  who  trusts  all  white  men?  Do  you 
know  of  any  town  in  the  North  where  more  than 
one-half  the  inhabitants  can  get  credit  to  any 
extent  at  the  local  stores  ?  Colored  men  are  not 
angels ;  they  are  merely  human  beings  with  all 
the  faults  of  ordinary  humanity  intensified  by 
recent  savage  extraction  and  several  generations 


OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

of  servitude,  the  worst  curse  of  which  was  that 
it  relieved  men  and  women  of  all  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility for  their  own  material  and  mental 
condition.  There  have  been  shrewd  yet  some- 
what unkind  suggestions  made  that  whatever 
natural  industry,  foresight,  and  business  shrewd- 
ness may  exist  in  colored  people  of  the  South,  is 
due  to  a  certain  admixture  of  white  blood  through 
methods  of  which  the  least  said  the  better. 
But,  strange  as  it  may  appear,  this  not  only  is 
not  true,  but  it  is  strangely  untrue.  The  ablest 
an4  most  trustworthy  of  the  Southern  farmers 
and  mechanics  of  the  colored  race  are  those  of 
the  darkest  skins.  A  "  yellow  man  "  is  a  term 
of  contempt  in  business  and  laboring  circles  in 
the  South.  Too  frequently  the  man  with  a 
liberal  admixture  of  white  blood  possesses  all  the 
vices  of  both  races,  without  any  of  the  virtues  of 
either. 

It  is  useless  to  deny  that  there  is  an  im- 
mense substratum  of  the  colored  population  of 
the  South  which  is  indolent,  spiritless  and 
vicious,  and  may  be  counted  upon  for  any  kind 
of  trouble  which  does  not  require  energy.  But 
are  the  Southern  whites  so  very  much  better  in 
this  respect  ?  The  corner  loafer  is  as  common  a 
character  in  the  South  as  he  is  at  the  North. 
Take  two  towns  of  equal  size  North  and  South 
and  you  can  find  more  lazy,  vicious,  worthless 
white  men  at  short  notice  in  the  Southern  town 


THE   COLORED    MAN7.  239 

than  in  that  of  the  North.  This  is  not  due  to 
Southern  blood,  but  to  Southern  breeding.  Lower 
classes  everywhere  will  ape  the  aristocrats.  The 
old  aristocratic  idea  in  the  South  was  that  it  was 
very  vulgar  to  work,  and  the  force  of  example  of 
aristocrats  who  have  given  up  this  rule  has  not 
yet  reached  the  lower  classes  of  whites,  and 
probably  will  not  until  most  of  these  whites 
have  enjoyed  a  period  of  seclusion  in  their  re- 
spective State  prisons.  The  difference,  however, 
between  the  blacks  and  the  whites  of  the  lower 
classes  is  this :  that  the  blacks  are  quite  satisfied 
to  band  together  and  remain  inconspicuous  so 
long  as  they  are  not  annoyed,  while  the  vicious 
class  among  the  whites  is  prone  to  be  aggres- 
sive at  very  slight  provocation.  Some  of  the 
newspapers  make  the  most  of  any  story  of 
lynching  of  a  colored  man  in  the  South,  but 
they  are  strangely  remiss  in  reporting  to  us  the 
outrages,  cruelties  and  indignities  inflicted  upon 
white  men,  very  frequently  white  men,  too,  who 
are  of  Southern  birth  and  Southern  feeling.  It 
takes  a  very  little  while  to  get  at  what  is  called 
public  sentiment  among  a  lot  of  lazy  men. 
Shooting  affrays  which  result  from  such  public 
excitement  are  a  great  deal  more  common  be- 
tween white  and  white  than  between  w^hite  and 
black,  as  any  one  can  tell  you  who  has  spent  any 
length  of  time  in  a  Southern  community  outside 
of  a  large  city.  The  feuds  which  occasionally 


240  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

become  historic,  family  feuds,  which  never  were 
heard  of  to  the  extent  of  bloodshed  anywhere  in 
the  Union  except  in  the  Southern  States,  are  al- 
ways between  white  men.  You  never  hear  of 
vendettas  in  colored  families. 

The  Southern  black,  too,  however  proud  he 
may  be  of  his  freedom,  and  however  strongly  he 
will  protest  against  having  any  rebels  to  work 
over  him,  is  nevertheless  closely  devoted  to  the 
class  to  which  his  old  master  belonged.  He  may 
not  be  willing  to  vote  with  "  ole  marsa "  on 
election  day,  but  he.  is  not  going  to  fight  against 
him  or  his  class  except  under  very  strong  provo- 
cation. There  are  some  ugly  negroes,  of  course. 
According  to  an  unimpeachable  authority  there 
used  to  be  ugly  characters  even  among  the  an- 
gels in  heaven.  But  it  is  seldom,  indeed,  that 
any  Southern  community  experiences  any  genu- 
ine sense  of  fear  regarding  what  the  negroes  are 
doing  or  what  they  may  do.  Small  conspiracies 
under  strong  religious  excitement  have  occasion- 
ally been  unearthed  in  the  South,  but  they  sel- 
dom "  came  to  a  head,"  as  the  saying  is,  although 
there  are  localities,  small  ones,  in  which  the 
blacks  far  outnumber  the  whites  and  in  which 
they  might  sweep  a  small  section  of  country  for 
a  time  and  be  in  absolute  domination.  A  great 
many,  probably  a  large  majority,  of  the  negroes 
will  steal,  and  they  also  will  lie ;  but  they  never 
are  grfeat  thieves,  and  there  is  very  little  method 


THE  COLORED   MAN.  241 

in  their  lying.  The  fear  in  which  Southern  edi- 
tors occasionally  pretend  that  certain  sections  of 
the  country  fall  has  nothing  behind  it  but  the 
imagination  of  the  editor  or  some  political  plan 
of  the  ruling  class  of  the  vicinity. 

Then  why  not  wipe  out  the  solid  South  and 
the  color  line  ?  Well,  if  you  were  to  do  it,  where 
would  the  two  great  parties  be  the  year  after  ? 
What  would  they  have  to  grumble  about  ?  \Vhat 
did  we  hear  as  soon  as  General  Harrison  was 
elected  President  of  the  United  States  ?  Why, 
that  he  was  going  to  inaugurate  a  strong  South- 
ern policy.  Why  a  strong  Southern  policy? 
Because  there  was  nothing  else  in  the  world  to 
talk  about.  The  position  of  the  South  or  of  the 
Southern  States  had  been  the  sole  capital  of  one 
party  ever  since  reconstruction  was  practically 
accomplished,  and  when  politicians  and  partisan 
editors  began  to  look  over  the  ground  after  their 
surprise  at  the  defeat  of  Cleveland,  there  was 
nothing  else  they  could  think  of  as  a  possible 
distinctive  measure  of  the  new  administration. 

That  the  President  will  do  anything  of  the 
kind  should  not  be  believed  by  any  sensible  man 
until  he  sees  it.  Indeed,  in  his  inaugural  ad- 
dress Mr.  Harrison  said,  like  a  true  statesman, 
"  I  assume  that  the  whole  body  of  the  people 
convenant  with  me  and  with  each  other  to-day  to 
support  and  defend  the  constitution  and  the  Union 
of  the  States,  to  yield  willing  obedience  to  all  the 

16 


242  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

laws,  and  each  to  every  other  citizen  his  equal  civil 
and  political  -rights."  Administrations  cannot  act 
according  to  the  fancies  of  politicians.  The  strong- 
est partisan  elected  to  a  high  executive  office  in 
the  United  States  is  compelled  suddenly  to  be- 
come very  conservative,  whether  he  wishes  to  be 
or  not,  and  the  most  that  may  be  feared  of  him, 
no  matter  to  which  party  he  may  belong,  is  that 
he  will  fail  to  accomplish  the  ordinary  duties  im- 
posed upon  him  by  his  constitutional  oath.  To 
help  the  party  is  the  last  thing  that  any  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  has  ever  succeeded  in 
accomplishing,  and  probably  the  last  thing  to 
which  he  has  been  able  to  give  any  consecutive 
attention. 

But  if  it  is  nonsense  for  the  Democrats  to  con- 
tinue talking  about  the  color-line  and  the  neces- 
sity of  a  solid  South,  why  should  not  the  other 
party  ignore  the  subject  entirely  ?  Because  they 
would  have  no  capital  for  another  campaign,  and 
would  be  obliged  to  begin  at  the  bottom  and  start 
anew  and  devise  something  with  which  to  catch 
the  attention  of  the  public.  Politicians  are 
shrewd  fellows.  They  are  not  going  to  throw 
away  old  party  cries  so  long  as  there  is  any  one 
to  listen  to  them.  The  bloody  shirt  has  been 
buried  again  and  again  on  convivial  occasions  at 
which  members  of  both  parties  assisted,  and  even 
Republican  orators  travelling  in  the  South  have 
admitted  that  the  sanguinary  garment  had  al- 


PRESIDENT  HARRISON. 


THE  COLORED  MAN.  243 

ready  been  interred  so  deep  that  there  was  no 
possibility  of  a  resurrection,  but  somehow  they 
forgot  these  remarks  as  soon  as  they  reached  the 
North  again.  Some  sort  of  banner  had  to  be 
flung  to  the  breeze  to  cheer  the  hearts  of  un- 
thinking retainers,  and  the  bloody  shirt  was  the 
only  one  available. 

If  the  color-line  is  ever  broken  at  the  South 
the  white  race  will  not  be  to  thank — neither 
the  whites  at  the  South  nor  those  at  the  North. 
The  colored  man  will  break  it  for  himself.  The 
negro  is  becoming  educated.  He  is  doing  it  very 
slowly  and  is  making  some  shocking  blunders  at 
it,  but  he  is  getting  a  little  further  ahead  every 
year.  Many  hundred  teachers,  members  of  his 
own  race,  are  being  specially  educated  every  year, 
and  these  men  and  women,  going  into  the  little 
centres  of  civilization  in  the  South,  are  giving 
their  own  class  some  entirely  new  ideas  as  to 
how  white  men  get  along  in  those  parts  of  the 
country  where  men  get  along  fastest.  They  not 
only  are  being  taught  the  elements  of  common 
school  education  and  how  to  teach  them  to  others, 
bu*t  each  one  of  them  is  taught  a  trade  beside. 
He  is  being  made  able  to  work  with  his  hands  as 
well  as  with  his  wits  and  to  show  the  members 
of  his  own  race  how  to  do  for  themselves  some 
things  which  always  have  been  left  for  the  abler 
hand  of  the  white  man.  A  number  of  different 
mechanical  trades  are  taught  at  the  Hampton 


244  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

Normal  School,  which,  has  been  in  operation  for 
a  great  many  years,  and  has  sent  a  great  many 
teachers  into  the  Southern  States  every  year,  and 
that  is  not  the  only  school  engaged  in  this  benefi- 
cent work.  In  the  South  adult  colored  people 
go  to  school.  More  of  them  take  lessons  from 
their  own  children.  The  negro  who  cannot  write 
his  own  name  and  doesn't  know  when  he  is  sign- 
ing a  promissory  note  or  a  receipt  in  full,  is  not 
so  common  as  he  used  to  be.  Negroes  are  man- 
aging some  large  plantations  and  doing  it  well. 
One  of  the  largest  plantations  in  the  South  is 
managed  and  controlled  in  every  respect  by  a 
man  who  was  a  slave  thirty  years  ago,  and 
smaller  instances  of  similar  nature  could  be  de- 
tailed in  great  numbers. 

Education  is  a  foe  to  prejudice  of  every  kind, 
and  as  the  colored  man  finds  himself  enjoying  a 
fair  field  beside  the  white  man,  he  gets  rid  of 
prejudice  to  a  remarkable  degree.  He  does  not 
ask  to  be  admitted  to  the  dining-room  or  parlor 
of  his  old  master  or  his  old  master's  son,  but  he 
finds  himself  in  the  court-room  and  at  the  auc- 
tion mart  and  in  all  other  centres  of  business 
quite  the  equal  of  the  races  which  he  has  been 
taught  to  consider  the  superior.  He  finds  that 
the  courts  are  quite  willing  to  grant  him  justice 
in  all  matters  of  dollars  and  cents,  and  after  all 
these  are  the  first  matters  with  which  the  negro, 
like  the  white  man,  concerns  himself.  The  more 


THE   COLORED   MAN.  245 

rapidly  his  opportunities  for  education  are  multi- 
plied, the  less  clannish  he  becomes.  This  is  the 
testimony  of  Southern  whites  themselves.  He 
no  longer  votes  to  the  party  call  of  some 
white  Republican,  but  votes  according  to  his 
own  convictions,  or  perhaps  according  to  the 
financial  inducements  of  the  highest  bidder,  like 
a  great  proportion  of  the  population  of  the  North- 
ern States.  He  is  quite  as  able  to  take  care  of 
himself  as  the  barbarians  which  ancient  Rome 
subdued,  and  quite  as  able  to  make  his  way,  little 
by  little  it  is  true,  to  a  position  of  equality  re- 
garding all  things  in  which  the  law  nominally 
assumes  that  men  are  equal.  He  will  break  that 
color-line  yet,  and  when  that  occurs  our  country 
will  see  the  unwonted  spectacle  of  an  absolute 
disintegration  and  regeneration  of  political  par- 
ties beginning  at  the  bottom  instead  of  at  the 
top. 

Probably  no  living  American  has  had  longer 
and  more  varied  experience  with  the  colored  race 
than  General  S.  C.  Armstrong,  of  Hampton, 
Virginia.  During  the  civil  war  he  trained  and 
commanded  colored  soldiers.  Soon  after  the  war 
ended  he  organized  the  colored  Normal  School 
at  Hampton — an  institution  which  is  talked  of, 
throughout  the  country,  quite  as  much  as  Yale 
or  Harvard.  Besides  seeing  the  colored  man 
and  woman  in  the  class-room,  the  General  man- 
ages an  immense  farm  and  a  dozen  shops — all 


246  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

belonging  to  the  school,  and  all  the  workers 
being  selected  from  the  students.  Beside  at- 
tending to  all  these  duties,  the  General  found 
time  to  look  in  upon  his  old  graduates  through- 
out the  country,  and  see  the  blacks  at  home 
everywhere.  .  I  wrote  him  a  short  time  ago  for 
his  opinion  as  to  the  outlook  of  the  race.  Here 
is  his  reply: 

"An  experience  of  two  years  and  a  half,  be- 
ginning in  1863,  with  colored  troops,  of  two  years 
thereafter  in  the  Freedmen's  Bureau,  and  of 
twenty  years  since  in  the  Hampton  School,  is 
the  basis  of  my  convictions  in  regard  to  the 
negroes  of  the  South.  They  have,  I  believe, 
established  their  capacity — first,  as  soldiers; 
second,  as  law-abiding,  industrious  citizens ;  third, 
for  remarkable  improvement  under  the  right 
educational  conditions. 

"  From  the  first  they  have  surprised  us. 
Black  troops  were  ridiculed  in  the  South  and 
distrusted  in  the  North  till  the  Confederate  gov- 
ernment began,  as  a  last  resort,  to  drill  them  as 
recruits  for  Lee's  wasted  regiments ;  and  they 
proved,  in  the  words  of  more  than  one  Southern 
general,  to  be  '  the  winning  card  of  the  war.' 
There  seems  no  doubt  that  they  have  since  kept 
up  their  record  as  regular  army  troops,  making 
efficient  and  courageous  soldiers. 

"  The  first  charge  against  the  freedmen  was 
that  they  would  not  work.  The  answer  to  this 


GEN.  S.  C.  ARMSTRONG 
( Principal,  of   Indian  Training  School). 


THE   COLORED   MAN.  247 

is,  that  in  the  various  branches  of  the  ill-fated 
Freedmen's  Banks  there  were  deposited  in  abont 
eight  years  over  fifty  millions  of  dollars,  ten  per 
cent,  of  which  was  permanent,  while  their  prop- 
erty, chiefly  in  land,  is  now  estimated  at  from 
$90,000,000  to  $150,000,000  in  value.  The  am- 
bition of  the  negro  to  become  a  land-owner  has 
been  his  salvation.  When  he  found  that  he 
could  not  get  his  coveted  'forty  acres  and  a 
mule '  except  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  he  set 
to  work,  and  soon  learned  that  one  mule  earned 
is  worth  ten  given.  The  illustrations  of  this  are 
universal.  A  negro  and  his  wife  will  break  up 
an  acre  or  two  with  their  own  labor  and  half 
starve  themselves  to  buy,  for  $15,  a  steer  with 
which  the  next  year  they  can  cultivate  a  few 
more  acres.  Then  they  buy  a  mule,  and  with 
land  at  from  five  to  eight  dollars  an  acre,  will, 
in  five  years,  have  paid  for  their  little  farm  and 
established  themselves  on  the  foundation  of  good 
citizenship.  The  negro  communities  which,  all 
over  the  South,  have  grown  up  in  this  way,  fur- 
nish the  nucleus  for  school  and  church  work,  and 
are  among  the  most  hopeful  signs  of  the  times. 
The  lands  which  thus  fall  into  their  hands  are 
usually  the  disintegrated  plantations,  which  have 
broken  up  from  sheer  unwieldiness,  and  are  now 
providing  homes  for  a  majority  of  the  Southern 
people,  white  as  well  as  black.  City  life  is  not 
wholesome  for  the  negro ;  for  while  it  gives  him 


248  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

good  schools  and  some  special  advantages,  the 
influences  are  in  the  main  bad,  and  attack  the 
colored  man  on  his  weak  side. 

"  Taking  the  ex-slaves  as  a  whole,  I  think  it 
safe  to  say  that  one-third  are  progressive  and  in- 
dustrious and  will  get  ahead  anywhere,  while 
another  (large)  third  forms  a  shiftless,  drifting 
class,  not  criminal,  nor  even  vicious,  but  inclined 
to  take  life  easily,  even  if  it  be  at  the  expense 
of  their  neighbors.  This  element  is  to  be  found 
principally  in  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  and  the  so- 
called  '  black  belt,'  and  on  the  whole  has,  I 
think,  in  the  last  ten  years,  improved  under  the 
influence  of  more  carefully  administered  laws 
and  better  schools.  The  middle  third  are  well 
disposed,  and  rise  or  fall  in  direct  response  to 
their  surroundings.  The  railroad  building  and 
other  business  enterprises  of  the  new  South  are 
factors  of  immense  importance  in  the  negro's 
development,  and  his  best  hope  is  in  Northern 
capital  and  immigration. 

"Again,  it  was  said  that  the  freedman  was  be- 
yond the  reach  of  books  and  school-teachers.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  negro  education  began  when  as 
slaves  they  were  taught  to  work,  to  speak  the 
language  of  their  masters,  and  accept  their  re- 
ligion, and  in  this  enforced  contact  with  the  white 
race  there  were  many  compensations.  The  ne- 
groes were  unconsciously  trained  into  strength, 
while,  just  as  unconsciously,  went  on  the  deca- 


THE   COLORED   MAN.  249 

dence  of  their  white  rulers,  which  ended,  as  such 
conditions  must,  in  revolution. 

"There  are  now  about  15,000  free  negro  schools 
in  the  South  supported  by  the  self-imposed  taxa- 
tion of  the  whites,  and  about  twenty-five  firmly 
established  and  powerful  institutions  of  a  higher 
grade,  built  and  maintained  almost  wholly  by 
Northern  charity,  which  is  sending  South  about 
a  million  of  dollars  yearly  for  negro  education. 
These  have  cost  from  $100,000  to  $400,000  each, 
and  are  training,  each  of  them,  from  250  to  400 
selected  negro  youth  as  teachers  for  the  public 
free  schools.  Of  these  a  small  per  cent,  become 
lawyers,  doctors,  and  ministers,  and  show  a  fair 
average  of  success,  but  the  crying  need  is  for 
teachers — practical  men  and  women — who  can 
show  their  people  how  to  do  better  work  in  their 
every-day  lives.  The  Hampton  School  alone 
has  sent  out  since  1868  over  seven  hundred  col- 
ored teachers. 

1  The  increase  of  the  blacks  in  numbers  is  a 
tremendous  fact,  and  makes  the  question  of  their 
education  an  immediately  vital  one.  The  negro 
must  work  out  his  own  salvation  like  the  rest  of 
us,  but  he  must  have  a  fair  chance,  and  to-day 
there  are  about  two  millions  of  freedmen  and 
women  in  the  South  to  whom  that  chance  is 
practically  denied.  They  are,  as  I  have  said, 
distinctly  dividing;  the  better  class  will  take 


250  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

care  of  themselves,  but  the  large  remainder  can 
be  saved  only  by  Christian  education. 

"  We  are  face  to  face  with  the  danger  of  an 
ignorant  population  whose  hands  hold  the  bal- 
ance of  political  power,  and  we  can  afford  to  make 
no  mistakes  in  our  dealings  with  them,  whether 
as  man  to  man  or  as  Christian  for  Christian. 

"  I  think  that  the  negro  will  disappoint  us  in 
the  future  as  he  has  in  the  past — that  he  will  do 
better  than  we  expect." 

It  is  said  by  some  people  at  the  North  that  the 
Southern  whites  are  opposed  to  the  education  of 
the  colored  race.  This  is  an  outrageous  slander. 
There  are  low-grade  whites  who  are  as  jealous 
of  the  blacks  as  some  whites,  equally  "  low- 
down,"  are  jealous  of  their  colored  neighbors  at 
the  North.  But  there  is  no  such  feeling  among 
the  class  that  makes  public  opinion.  Many 
prominent  Virginians  are  among  the  heartiest 
supporters  of  General  Armstrong,  Captain  Pratt, 
and  other  managers  of  normal  schools  for  colored 
people.  A  joint  committee  of  the  Virginia  Leg- 
islature recently  said  of  the  Hampton  School : 

"  This  institute  stands  as  a  monument,  show- 
ing the  untiring  energy  and  indomitable  will  of 
the  principal  of  this  school ;  the  splendid  gifts 
and  noble  charities  of  American  citizens;  the 
strong  desire  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  to  educate 
and  elevate  the  colored  race ;  the  willingness  of 
the  colored  race  to  receive  an  education  ;  the  high 


THE  COLORED    MAN.  251 

appreciation  of  this  blessing  entertained  by  this 
race ;  the  wisdom  of  Virginia  in  donating  one- 
third  of  the  land  scrip  fund  to  this  institution ; 
the  good  judgment  of  the  law-makers  of  Virginia 
in  granting  such  a  liberal  charter ;  the  splendid 
achievements  of  human  skill  and  industry ;  the 
credit  of  the  good  and  loyal  people  of  Elizabeth 
City  county  and  Hampton;  the  great  part  it 
played  in  bringing  more  people,  more  money, 
and  more  wealth  to  the  community  in  which  it  is 
located.  Let  it  flourish  and  prosper ;  let  its  in- 
fluence grow  wider  and  deeper  and  stronger  and 
broader,  until  all  parts  of  our  common  country 
will  feel  and  know  its  blessings  towards  those 
who  have  been  but  recently  made  American  citi- 
zens. The  casual  reader  or  observer  cannot 
comprehend  the  magnitude  and  gravity  of  the 
'  education  of  the  negro '  in  Virginia.  At  this 
period  in  our  history,  when  our  people  are  over- 
burdened with  taxation ;  when  our  finances  are 
as  yet  unsettled ;  when  the  cry  comes  welling 
up  from  all  portions  of  our  State,  '  Educate  the 
youth  of  our  land,'  then  law-makers  and  people 
should  be  thankful  for  aid,  and  should  foster, 
nourish,  and  encourage  every  proper  means  or 
enterprise  tending  to  the  education  of  the  youth 
of  our  State." 

Hampton  is  but  one  school  of  many  preparing 
colored  people  to  teach  their  own  race.  Negro 
intelligence  is  going  to  break  the  color  line. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE  INDIAN. 

IT  was  not  very  long  ago  that  the  Indian  was 
the  object  of  a  great  deal  of  discussion  and  alarm 
in  the  United  States. 

He  had  a  habit  of  breaking  out  at  unexpected 
times  and  in  unexpected  places.  He  might  be 
quiet  in  winter  when  the  snow  was  deep  and  the 
reservation  warehouse  was  so  full  of  stores  there 
was  no  possibility  of  his  getting  hungry,  and 
consequently  angry.  When,  however,  the  spring 
sun  melted  away  the  snow  and  brought  the  grass 
to  the  surface,  so  that  it  was  cheaper  to  let  a  pony 
fatten  on  the  grass  than  to  kill  him  while  he  was 
lean,  the  Indian  picked  up  his  spirits  and  rifle — 
which  always  was  a  good  one — and  started  on  the 
warpath.  He  did  not  particularly  care  whom  he 
might  kill ;  but  if  there  were  no  other  Indian 
tribes  about,  he  was  not  going  home  without  a 
scalp,  even  if  he  had  to  kill  a  white  man.  The 
development  of  some  of  our  Territories  was  ar- 
rested for  months,  and  even  years,  by  some  In- 
dian wars  which  began  upon  very  slight  pretext, 
and  which  our  army,  contemptible  in  numbers, 

(252) 


THE    INDIAN.  253 

was  unable  to  suppress  promptly;  and  the 
savages  gained  confidence  from  the  knowledge, 
which  they  were  not  compelled  to  ignore,  that 
we  were  not  a  fighting  nation. 

Either  through  better  soldiers  or  less  dis- 
honest agents,  there  has  been  a  change  in  late 
years.  The  Indian  has  not  been  on  the  warpath 
in  a  long  time,  and  some  of  the  exciting  accounts 
of  Indian  raids  in  the  West  amount  only  to  this — 
that  a  body  of  men  have  left  their  reservation 
against  the  advice  of  their  associates,  and  started 
on  a  stealing  and  murdering  tour  just  far  enough 
ahead  of  the  military  force  to  be  able  to  do  a 
great  deal  of  harm  in  a  short  time. 

At  the  same  time,  however,  the  idea  has  been 
creeping  to  the  surface  that  the  Indian  might 
possibly  be  regarded  as  a  human  being  and  as 
amenable  to  the  ordinary  laws  and  customs  of 
civilization. 

All  of  us  have  heard  the  old  brutal  remark, 
attributed  to  General  Sheridan  and  several  other 
army  officers,  that  the  only  good  Indian  is  a 
dead  one.  But  this  is  a  base  and  cruel  slander. 
There  are  a  great  many  good  Indians,  and  every 
honest  Indian  agent  as  well  as  every  military 
officer  who  has  much  to  do  with  the  savage  tribes 
knows  that  in  each  reservation  there  are  a  num- 
ber of  men,  rude  though  they  may  be,  who  are 
of  considerable  character  and  large  self-control, 
and  whose  principal  faults  may  be  charged  to 


254  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

the  negligence  of  the  government,  which  has 
regarded  the  red  man  as  its  special  ward. 

The  Indian  has  brains.  No  one  is  quicker  to 
admit  this  than  the  army  officer  who  has  had 
occasion  to  fight  the  Indian.  General  Custer 
was  a  good  soldier  and  an  experienced  Indian 
fighter,  but  Chief  Gall  was  a  better  one.  The 
defeat  of  Custer  is  usually  attributed  to  Sitting 
Bull,  but  that  old  ruffian  simply  did  out-and- 
out  fighting ;  the  brains  of  the  conflict — all  the 
strategy  and  all  the  tactics — were  supplied  by  an 
Indian  named  Gall,  who  still  lives,  and  for  whose 
military  ability  every  officer  in  our  army  has  a 
profound  respect,  not  unmixed  with  fear. 

The  flowery  and  elaborate  speeches  which  dif- 
ferent representatives  of  savage  tribes  have  made 
to  the  Great  Father  at  Washington,  through 
their  interpreters,  may  seem  to  have  a  good  deal 
of  nonsense  in  them,  but  the  Indian  Bureau 
knows  that  they  also  contain  a  great  deal  of  ad- 
mirable diplomacy.  It  may  be  because  the  In- 
dian has  very  little  to  think  of  and  can  give  his 
whole  mind  to  the  subject  under  consideration ; 
but  whatever  the  reason,  the  fact  is  assured  that 
in  pow-wows  between  representatives  of  our  In- 
dian Bureau  and  some  of  the  tribes  in  the  Far 
West  the  preponderance  of  brains  has  not  always 
been  on  the  side  of  the  white  man. 

Another  unexpected  development  of  the  In- 
dian question  is,  that  the  Indian  will  work. 


THE   INDIAN.  255 

This  may  seem  a  wild  statement  in  view  of  what 
a  number  of  travellers  and  military  officers  have 
seen  on  reservations  in  the  Far  West  and  at 
railway  stations  on  the  slender  line  which  con- 
nects the  civilization  of  the  West  with  that  of 
the  Rocky  mountains  and  the  Pacific  slope.  But 
fortunately  there  are  a  number  of  witnesses  to 
substantiate  it ;  for  instance,  the  Apaches  are 
currently  supposed  to  be  the  most  irreclaimable 
tribe  of  wild  men  within  our  nation's  borders. 
It  will  not  be  hard  to  recall  the  difficulties 
which  General  Crook  experienced  in  following, 
defeating  and  recalling  Geronimo's  famous  gang 
of  Apaches  a  few  years  ago,  when  they  were 
followed  to  a  mountain  fastness  in  Mexico.  Yet 
when  some  of  the  demons  who  had  murdered, 
ravished  and  burned  everything  in  their  path 
were  finally  brought  back  to  the  reservation  and 
taught  that  by  tilling  the  soil  they  could  earn 
some  money,  or  at  least  the  equivalent  of 
money,  they  worked  harder  than  any  American 
farmer  whose  achievements  had  ever  been  re- 
corded. These  so-called  lazy  devils  supplied  a 
military  post  with  hundreds  of  tons  of  hay, 
every  particle  of  which  was  cut  by  hand  with 
such  knives  as  the  savages  happened  to  have : 
they  had  no  other  tools  with  which  to  work. 
They  also  supplied  the  post  with  vegetables  of 
various  kinds,  beside  keeping  themselves  well 
fed  with  products  of  the  soil  which  were  results 


256  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

of  their  own  labor.  Farms  managed  by  Indians 
are  not  at  all  uncommon  in  the  West.  It  was 
the  eviction,  or  the  fear  of  eviction  of  an  old 
Indian  woman  from  her  farm,  that  led  to  the 
murder  of  Indian  Agent  Meeker  in  Colorado. 
An  Indian  named  Ouray  was  for  a  long  time 
one  of  the  most  successful  and  respected  farmers 
in  Colorado.  Ouray  not  only  managed  his  own 
business  well,  but  kept  in  order  all  the  Indians 
in  his  vicinity.  His  methods  were  somewhat 
rude  to  be  sure,  but  they  always  were  effective, 
and  no  army  officer  of  his  acquaintance  hesitated 
to  trust  him  as  implicitly  as  he  would  trust  the 
Secretary  of  War  for  the  time  being.  An  In- 
dian at  present  is  one  of  the  land  barons  of  the 
West,  and  has  held  his  little  estate  near  the 
centre  of  a  large  and  flourishing  town  in  spite 
of  all  temptations  and  machinations  of  rum- 
sellers,  traders,  lawyers  and  other  scoundrels 
that  have  endeavored  to  swindle  him  out  of  his 
own. 

But  it  isn't  necessary  to  go  West  to  find  out 
whether  the  Indian  will  work.  One  needs  only 
to  go  down  to  Hampton,  Virginia,  where  the 
government  is  supporting  a  lot  of  young  Indians 
in  the  Normal  school  conducted  by  General 
Armstrong.  I  had  heard  so  much  about  the 
unwonted  spectacle  of  Indians,  clothed  and  in 
their  right  minds,  with  clean  faces  and  hands, 
studying  books  and  using  tools  and  behaving 


THE    INDIAN.  257 

themselves  like  human  beings — that  a  little 
while  ago  I  went  down  to  Hampton  myself 
and  went  through  the  schools.  First,  I  asked 
General  Armstrong  whether  the  Indian  would 
work. 

"  Will  he  work  ?  "  said  the  General,  with  a 
merry  twinkle  of  his  eye.  "Well  now,  you  roam 
about  here  yourself  all  .  day ;  I  presume  you 
know  a  red  man  from  a  black  one  when  you  see 
him ;  and  you  will  have  the  question  answered 
to  your  entire  satisfaction." 

I  did,  and  was  convinced.  I  saw  Indians  out- 
of-doors  working  the  soil,  and  Indians  indoors,  in 
the  shops,  handling  tools  as  skilfully  as  the 
average  white  man.  I  saw  houses  inhabited  by 
picked  Indian  families — young  people  with  chil- 
dren, and  the  " housekeeping" — one  of  the  most 
comprehensive  words  in  the  world — was  so 
thorough  in  all  visible  respects  that  either 
family  seemed  fit  to  teach  domestic  economy  and 
neatness  in  many  Northern  villages  I  have  seen. 
I  saw  four  Indians  in  a  class-room,  at  four  sepa- 
rate blackboards,  draw,  inside  of  three  minutes 
by  the  clock,  four  quite  accurate  maps  of  North 
America,  putting  the  principal  lakes  and  rivers 
in  their  proper  places.  Several  prominent  Amer- 
icans (white)  were  with  me  at  the  time,  and  each 
admitted,  for  himself,  that  he  could  not  have 
done  as  well  to  save  his  life ;  yet  one  was  one  of 
those  railroad  monopolists  who  want  to  own  the 

17 


258  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

earth,  and  are  supposed  to  carry  at  least  their 
own  section  of  it  in  their  mind's  eye. 

From  General  Armstrong  himself  I  got  the 
following  brief  statement  of  the  Indian  situation, 
and  I  have  been  unable  to  find  any  one  in  author- 
ity who  is  able  to  contradict  any  part  of  it. 

"  There  are  now  in  this  country  (exclusive  of 
the  Alaskans)  some  246,000  Indians,  of  whom 
64,000  belong  to  the  so-called  civilized  tribes,  the 
Choctaws,  Cherokees,  Creeks  and  Chickasaws. 
These,  including  their  16,000  ex-slaves,  a  rapidly 
increasing  negro  element,  live,  in  the  main,  like 
white  men.  They,  however,  pay  no  taxes,  receiv- 
ing ample  revenues  from  their  interest  in  the  sales 
of  land  to  the  government,  but,  while  they  have 
schools  and  churches  and  an  organized  govern- 
ment of  their  own,  are  held  back  by  their  adhe- 
rence to  the  old  tribal  idea.  This  is  thoroughly 
anti-progressive,  and  the  savage  Indian  of  to- 
day, who,  taking  his  land  in  severalty,  conies 
under  the  same  law  as  his  white  neighbor,  will 
probably  in  twenty  years  be  well  in  advance  of 
his  Indian  Territory-  brother,  who,  under  exist- 
ing conditions,  can  be  neither  one  thing  nor  the 
other. 

"The  principal  uncivilized  tribes  are  the  20,000 
Navajos  in  the  Southwest,  and  the  30,000  Sioux 
in  the  Northwest.  The  first  of  these  have 
nearly  doubled  in  ten  years,  own  1,000,000  sheep 
and  40,000  ponies,  are  wholly  independent  and 


THE   INDIAN.  259 

self-supporting,  but  wild  and  nomadic  ;  while  the 
Sioux,  who  are  but  just  holding  their  own,  are 
still  victims  to  the  ration  system.  In  spite, 
however,  of  this  demoralizing  influence,  they 
have  improved  remarkably  of  late,  chiefly  be- 
cause they  have  been  fortunate  in  their  agents. 
It  is  upon  the  agents  that  everything  depends, 
and  those  in  charge  of  the  Sioux  have  gradually 
decreased  the  food  supply,  thus  forcing  self- 
support  and  inducing  the  younger  men  to  scatter 
along  the  river  bottoms  where  there  is  wood  and 
water,  instead  of  huddling  in  hopeless  depend- 
ence about  the  agencies.  Along  the  banks  of 
the  Upper  Missouri  and  its  tributaries,  and  on 
the  Rose-bud  and  Pine  Ridge  Agencies,  the 
Sioux  have  generally  broken  from  the  hea- 
thenish village  life  and  taken  farms  up  of  from 
one  to  thirty  acres.  As  I  drove  last  fall  down  the 
west  bank  of  the  Missouri  river  I  saw  hundreds 
of  these  farms,  with  their  wire  fences,  log  huts 
with  the  supplementary  ti-pi,  stacks  of  grain 
and  hay,  and  everywhere  men  working  in  the 
fields,  nineteen  out  of  twenty  in  citizen's  cloth- 
ing. As  a  better  class  of  white  settlers  conies 
in,  a  better  feeling  comes  with  them,  and  the 
Indian  can  get  in  no  other  way  such  education 
as  he  receives  from  contact  with  these  people. 

"The  best  of  these  Sioux,  3,500  of  whom  are 
now  self-supporting,  illustrate  what  we  mean  by 
'  progressive  Indians,'  and  what  has  been  done 


260  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

for  them  can  be  done  for  all  Indians.  It  is  only 
a  question  of  time  and  work.  Between  the 
Sierra  Nevada  and  the  Rocky  Mountain  Ranges, 
and  in  Montana,  there  are  many  thousand 
Indians  whose  condition  is  not  encouraging, 
chiefly.for  lack  of  adequate  effort  in  their  behalf; 
while  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  many  on  the 
Pacific  coast  who,  under  the  influence  of  good 
agents  and  good  conditions,  are  doing  well. 
On  farming  lands  Indians  improve  much  faster 
than  in  a  grazing  country. 

u  Government  paid  last  year  $1,050,000  for  beef 
for  reservation  Indians,  and  $1,200,000  for  their 
education,  and  only  twelve  thousand  children 
are  at  school  out  of  the  total  of  forty  thousand 
who  are  of  an  age  to  receive  education.  More 
education  and  less  beef  is  the  need. 

"An  experience  of  eleven  years  with  Indian 
students  at  Hampton,  together  with  careful  study 
of  reservation  life,  has  convinced  me  that  In- 
dians are  alive  to  progressive  influences.  They 
are  intelligent  and  clear  thinkers,  quick  at 
technical  work  in  trades  shops,  unused  to  steady 
application  but  willing  to  take  hold.  They  do 
not  learn  English  easily,  and  are  shy  of  speak- 
ing it,  while  they  have  no  appreciation  of  the 
value  of  time,  and  cannot  endure  prolonged 
effort ;  this  last  being  a  result  of  their  lack  of 
physical  vigor,  which  I  believe  to  be  their  chief 
disadvantage.  In  my  dealings  with  them  I  have 


THE    INDIAN.  261 

treated  them  as  men  and  have  found  them 
manly,  frank,  resentful,  but  not  revengeful ; 
with  a  keen  sense  of  justice,  ready  to  take  pun- 
ishment for  wrong  doing,  and  to  speak  the  truth 
to  their  own  hurt. 

"  Of  247  sent  home  from  the  Hampton  school, 
three-fourths  have  done  from  fairly  to  very  well. 
At  least  one-third  are  doing  excellently.  There 
must  always  be  a  certain  percentage  of  poor 
material,  and  there  is  a  curious  fickleness  in  the 
average  Indian;  but  our  students  are  always 
surprising  us  by  doing  better  than  we  expect, 
and  this  is  especially  the  case  with  the  girls,  for 
whom  often  we  hardly  dare  to  hope.  Over  one- 
half  of  our  returned  Indians  have  had  temporary 
relapses,  but  there  are  few  who  do  not  recover 
themselves.  A  majority  are  working  for  their 
living  as  teachers,  mechanics,  farmers,  teamsters, 
clerks,  etc. 

"The  need  of  the  Indian  is  good  agents, 
teachers,  and  farm  instructors.  They  are  born 
stock-raisers  and  their  lands  are  the  best  cattle 
ranges  in  the  country.  With  the  right  men  in 
charge  they  could  in  ten  years  raise  such  a  pro- 
portion of  their  own  beef  as  to  reduce  the  beef 
issue  by  one-half. 

"  In  their  way  stands  a  short-sighted  economy, 
and  a  service  so  organized  that  it  changes  with 
every  change  of  party.  The  lines  of  work  for 
the  Indian  are  indicated  with  sufficient  clearness  ; 


262  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURK. 

the  one  thing  now  essential  is  intelligent  co- 
operation of  his  friends. 

"The  say  ing  that  '  there  is  no  good  Indian  but 
a  dead  one'  is  a  cruel  falsehood  and  has  done 
great  harm.  They  are  a  good  deal  like  other 
people,  and  with  a  fair  chance  do  well." 

That  the  Indian  will  work  and  that  he  also 
will  learn  was  first  demonstrated — officially — by 
Captain  Pratt,  of  the  regular  army,  who  now  is 
busily  engaged  in  solving  individual  Indian 
problems  at  his  noble  school  at  Carlisle,  Pa. 
The  change  in  the  government's  policy  toward 
the  redskins  is  attributed,  with  good  reason,  to 
Captain  Pratt's  endeavors.  Says  Senator  Dawes, 
who  labored  so  hard  for  the  bill  enabling  Indians 
to  take  farms  instead  of  living  in  barbarous  com- 
munism on  reservations : 

"  The  division  line  between  the  present  policy 
and  the  past  is  drawn  here ;  in  the  past  the  gov- 
ernment tried,  by  fair  means  or  foul,  to  rid  itself 
of  the  Indian.  The  present  policy  is  to  make 
something  of  him.  That  policy  had  its  origin 
almost  in  an  accident.  Bight  or  nine  years  ago 
the  government  sent  Captain  Pratt  with  warriors, 
covered  with  the  blood  of  a  merciless  war,  from 
the  Indian  Territory  down  to  Florida ;  and  Cap- 
tain Pratt,  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty,  under- 
took to  relieve  himself  of  the  labor  of  keeping 
these  warriors  in  idleness,  no  matter  if  the  work 
was  of  no  service  to  anybody  if  it  would  keep 


THE   INDIAN. 

them  out  of  idleness.  With  this  end  in  view  he 
got  permission  to  let  them  pick  stones  out  of  the 
streets.  Then  he  enlisted  ladies  to  teach  them 
to  read.  Out  of  that  experiment  of  Captain 
Pratt's  has  come  all  the  rest.  Behold  what  a 
great  fire  a  little  matter  has  kindled !  " 

Senator  Dawes  further  says  the  following  per- 
tinent words  on  the  Indian,  question ;  no  Ameri- 
can can  fail  to  realize  the  force  of  his  remarks: 

"  If  St.  Paul  was  here  and  had  250,000  In- 
dians on  his  hands,  whom  the  United  States  had 
sought  for  one  hundred  years  to  rob  of  every 
means  of  obtaining  a  livelihood,  and  had  helped 
bring  up  in  ignorance,  he  never  would  have  said 
to  them,  '  He  that  will  not  work,  shall  not  eat.' 
You  did  not  say  that  to  the  poor  black  man ; 
you  did  not  say  that  to  the  little  children  whom 
you  sent  by  contribution  out  into  the  country  for 
fresh  air,  and  you  ought  not  to  say  it  to  this 
poor,  helpless  race,  helpless  in  their  ignorance, 
and  ignorant  because  we  have  fostered  their  ig- 
norance. We  have  appropriated  more  money  to 
keep  them  in  absolute  darkness,,  and  heathenism, 
and  idleness,  than  would  have  been  required  to 
send  every  one  of  them  to  college,  and  now  we 
propose  to  turn  them  out.  We  did  not  relieve 
ourselves  of  the  responsibility  by  that  indiffer- 
ence ;  we  have  got  to  take  them  by  the  hand  like 
little  children  and  bring  them  up  out  of  this 
ignorance,  for  they  multiply  upon  our  hands, 


264  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

and  their  heritage  is  being  wrenched  away  from 
them,  and  good  men  as  well  as  bad  are  devising 
means  to  take  it  away. 

"  What  is  to  become  of  them  then  ?  Have 
we  done  our  duty  to  this  people  when  we  have 
said  to  them  :  (  We  will  scatter  you  and  let  you 
become  isolated  and  vagabonds  on  the  earth,  and 
then  we  will  apply  to  you  the  philosophic  com- 
mand, "Go,  take  care  of  yourselves;  we  have 
every  dollar  of  your  possessions,  every  acre  of 
your  heritage ;  we  have  killed  more  of  your  fel- 
lows than  there  are  of  you  left}  we  have  burnt 
your  little  homes,  and  now  we  have  arrived  at 
the  conclusion  that  it  is  time  to  take  away  from 
you  the  last  foot  of  ground  upon  which  you  can 
rest,  and  we  shall  have  done  our  duty  when  we 
command  you  to  take  care  of  yourselves  ? " 
That  is  not  the  way  I  read  it ;  I  know  how  sin- 
cere and  honest,  and  probably  as  near  right 
everybody  else  is,  but  I  am  only  telling  how  I 
feel.  I  feel  just  this  :  that  every  dollar  of  money, 
and  every  hour  of  effort  that  can  be  applied  to 
each  individual  Indian,  day  and  night,  in  season 
and  out  of  season,  with  patience  and  persever- 
ance, with  kindness  and  with  charity,  is  not 
only  due  him  in  atonement  for  what  we  have 
inflicted  upon  him  in  the  past,  but  is  our  own 
obligation  towards  him  in  order  that  we  may  not 
have  him  a  vagabond  and  a  pauper,  without 
home  or  occupation  among  us  in  this  land. 


THE    INDIAN.  265 

One  or  the  other  is  the  alternative ;  he  is  to  be 
a  vagabond  about  our  streets,  begging  from  door 
to  door,  and  plundering  our  citizens,  or  he  is  to 
be  taken  up  and  made  a  man  among  us ;  a  citi- 
zen of  this  great  republic,  absorbed  into  the  body 
politic  and  made  a  useful  and  influential  citizen." 

President  Cleveland  voiced  the  opinion  of  all 
thoughtful  and  intelligent  citizens  when  he  wrote 
that  "  the  conscience  of  the  people  demands  that 
the  Indians  within  our  boundaries  be  fairly  and 
honestly  treated  as  wards  of  the  government, 
and  their  education  and  civilization  promoted 
with  view  to  ultimate  citizenship" 

With  a  chance  to  work,  the  Indian  needs  also 
the  chance  to  learn,  and  this  he  is  getting  more 
and  more.  Whether  he  will  learn  is  a  question 
no  longer  open  to  doubt.  General  Armstrong's 
testimony  is  given  above.  Captain  Pratt  says 
"  scarcely  a  student  but  is  able  to  take  care  of 
himself  or  herself  among  civilized  people  at  the 
end  of  their  five  years'  course."  Bishop  Hare, 
of  the  Episcopal  Church,  who  has  been  doing 
splendid  work  among  the  Indians  for  many 
years,  gives  unwearying  attention  to  schools  on 
the  reservations,  but  says,  "I  cannot  shut  my  eyes 
to  the  incalculable  service  which  well-conducted 
Eastern  boarding-schools  have  done  the  Indians." 

When  we  shall  have  for  a  few  years  treated 
the  Indian  like  a  human  being,  there  will  be  no 
41  Indian  question  "  to  discuss. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE  PRESS. 

THE  editor  is  the  great  American  school- 
master. None  other  is  worthy  to  be  compared 
with  him. 

He  is  about  as  numerous  as  all  other  teachers 
combined.  His  lessons  are  given  more  fre- 
quently, they  last  longer  and  they  cost  less  than 
any  others. 

To  him  forty-nine  students  in  every  fifty  are  in- 
debted for  the  only  post-graduate  course  they  ever 
receive.  Many  others  would  have  no  education 
at  all  if  it  were  not  for  him. 

He  does  not  always  know  his  business  so  well 
that  he  could  not  know  it  better,  but  whatever  he 
does  know  he  imparts  steadily,  as  well  as  some 
that  he  does  not  honor. 

He  is  the  only  influence  upon  whom  the  pub- 
lic can  absolutely  depend  to  right  any  wrong 
which  is  being  endured  in  spite  of  the  efforts  and 
oaths  of  legislators.  When  law  is  lazy  and  legis- 
lators are  venal  it  is  the  editor,  and  the  editor  only, 
who  comes  to  the  relief  of  the  public.  The  pub- 
lic will  not  do  this  for  itself.  It  seems  to  con< 

(266) 


THK   PRESS.  267 

sider  its  duty  done  when  it  casts  its  ballot.  More 
than  half  a  century  ago,  when  editors  were  not 
supposed  to  think  their  souls  their  own,  the  first 
Napoleon  said,  "  Four  hostile  newspapers  are 
more  to  be  feared  than  a  thousand  bayonets." 
Napoleon  certainly  knew  the  value  of  bayonets. 

The  newspaper  is  the  universal  tribunal.  It 
is  an  open  court  and  there  is  justice  of  a  sort  for 
every  one  there  at  a  trifling  cost,  one  cent,  two. 
or  three,  as  the  case  may  be.  The  editor  is  the 
lawyer  to  whom  the  poor  man  must  of  necessity 
come.  His  court  is  one  of  equity,  and  it  is  to 
equity  courts  after  all  that  all  of  us  are  inclined 
to  resort  when  we  insist  upon  a  final  decision. 

He  is  the  people's  advocate.  Before  a  law  can 
be  suggested  in  legislature  or  Congress  to  undo 
a  wrong  or  strengthen  a  right,  the  editor  has  al- 
ready suggested  it,  debated  both  sides  of  it  and 
rendered  a  decision,  frequently  a  dozen  or  twenty 
decisions,  which  the  public  are  inclined  to  admit 
or  regard  as  accurate.  He  sometimes  gets  hold 
of  a  subject  wrong  end  first,  but  he  will  submit  to 
correction  and  improvement  quicker  than  any 
judge  or  jury  on  record.  He  may  not  always 
admit  that  he  has  changed  his  mind,  or  that  he 
turned  over,  or  that  he  has  turned  his  coat,  but 
the  change  is  there  all  the  same,  to  any  one  who 
will  read  his  paper. 

He  is  the  only  biographer  and  historian  which 
the  mass  of  the  people  can  read.  And  he  gives 


268  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

more  information  for  a  given  amount  of  money 
than  the  cheapest  circulating  library  in  the  world. 

The  editor  is  also  invaluable  as  a  social 
barometer.  As  Thackeray  once  said,  '  The 
newspaper  is  typical  of  the  community  in  which 
it  is  encouraged  and  circulated ;  it  tells  its  char- 
acter as  well  as  its  condition."  This  is  awfully 
severe  upon  some  communities,  and  upon  the 
Dreaders  of  certain  papers,  but  it  is  none  the  less 
true. 

Unselfish  thinkers,  who  are  concerned  chiefly 
for  the  good  of  the  community,  are  always  the 
men  who  esteem  the  editor  most  highly.  Wen- 
dell Phillips,  who  for  more  than  thirty  years  was 
abused  by  about  half  the  editors  of  the  land, 
said,  "  Let  me  make  the  newspapers,  and  I  care 
not  what  is  preached  in  the  pulpit  or  what  is 
enacted  in  Congress."  Many  years  before, 
Thomas  Jefferson,  one  of  the  founders  of  our 
government,  said,  "  Were  it  left  to  me  to  decide 
whether  we  should  have  a  government  without 
newspapers,  or  newspapers  without  a  government, 
I  should  prefer  the  latter." 

The  editor  has  improved  more  rapidly  in  the 
past  twenty-five  years  than  the  representative  of 
any  other  profession.  Theologians,  physicians 
and  lawyers  all  belong  to  schools  of  one  sort  or 
other,  but  of  late  years  there  has  come  up  a 
new  school  of  journalism  which  is  called  inde- 
pendent, and  it  has  become  so  popular  with 


THE   PRESS.  269 

readers  of  newspapers  that  the  number  of  pro- 
fessors and  students  in  it  are  increasing  at  a  most 
gratifying  rate. 

James  Gordon  Bennett,  Jr.,  explains  one  dif- 
ference clearly  when  he  says :  "  There  is  one 
grand  distinction  between  journals — some  are 
newspapers,  some  are  organs.  An  organ  is  sim- 
ply a  daily  pamphlet  published  in  the  interest  of 
some  party,  or  persons,  or  some  agitation."  But 
the  organs  are  not  as  numerous  as  they  used  to 
be. 

Who  would  have  imagined  any  time  before  the 
late  civil  war  that  in  any  great  political  campaign 
preceding  a  general  election  in  this  country  there 
would  be  scores  and  almost  hundreds  of  indepen- 
dent newspapers.  The  time  was  when  a  news- 
paper could  not  exist  unless  it  were  a  party  or 
personal  organ.  But  the  newspaper  has  gradu- 
ally risen  from  being  a  mere  partisan  or  personal 
mouthpiece  to  being  the  mouthpiece  of  its  own 
proprietor.  At  the  present  day  no  properly 
qualified  journalist  need  attach  himself  to  either 
party  for  financial  reasons.  If  he  is  competent 
to  make  a  good  newspaper  he  is  quite  free  to  ex- 
press his  own  opinions  regardless  of  whom  he 
may  help  or  hurt,  and  the  position  is  so  delightful 
that  a  great  many  editors  rush  into  it  apparently 
for  the  mere  pleasure  of  expressing  their  own 
opinions.  During  the  last  general  election  the 
scarcity  of  strong  party  organs,  even  in  the  larg- 


270  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

est  cities  where  they  were  supposed  most  to  be 
needed,  was  a  matter  of  general  comment  among 
practical  politicians,  and  it  is  known  that  some 
newspapers  changed  hands  solely  for  the  purpose 
of  being  turned  into  party  organs  and  that  it  was 
frequently  so  difficult  to  obtain  control  of  existing 
journals  that  new  ones  had  to  be  started  for  the 
sole  purpose  of  supplying  their  respective  parties 
with  mouthpieces.  This  may  be  considered  a 
compliment  to  the  personal  interest  of  the  average 
journalist  or  to  his  personal  ability.  But,  which- 
ever it  is,  it  is  highly  creditable  to  the  profession, 
and  it  is  a  result  which  could  not  have  been 
hoped  for  twenty-five  years  ago. 

Now-a-days  every  journalist  of  actual  ability, 
no  matter  which  party  he  belongs  to,  wishes  that 
he  may  become  owner  of  an  independent  news- 
paper. It  is  impossible  for  him  not  to  see  that 
the  independent  newspaper  is  not  only  the  most 
quoted  and  the  most  talked  about,  but  the  most 
profitable.  The  paper  which  is  read  by  both 
parties  is  sure  of  more  subscribers,  purchasers 
and  advertisers  than  that  which  draws  all  its 
inspiration  from  the  platform  formed  by  a  single 
convention.  The  independent  editor  hears  him- 
self quoted  in  Congress  by  men  of  both  parties ; 
and  these  same  men  are  quite  likely  to  grumble 
and  swear  within  a  week  to  find  themselves  casti- 
gated by  the  same  men  whose  words  of  wisdom 
they  recently  availed  themselves  of. 


THE   PRESS.  271 

The  possibilities  of  the  press  for  good,  now 
that  independence  in  journalism  is  practicable 
and  also  a  business  temptation,  cannot  be  over- 
estimated. Public  opinion  can  be  created  more 
rapidly  by  daily  appeals  and  arguments  which 
the  newspaper  reader  can  quietly  look  over  by 
himself,  pausing  whenever  he  may  like  to  think 
over  what  he  has  read,  than  anything  that  can 
appear  in  campaign  speeches  or  magazine  essays 
or  books  by  the  most  noted  writers  and  special- 
ists. The  editor,  as  a  rule,  has  dropped  the  old 
stilted  form  of  the  essay,  and  puts  his  arguments 
in  the  ordinary  colloquial  form,  with  homely 
illustrations  and  forcible  applications  so  far  as 
words  go.  If  it  didn't  seem  like  complimenting 
him  too  highly  and  making  him  vain,  it  would 
not  be  unfair  to  say  that  his  method  is  that  in 
which  the  more  valuable  portion  of  the  four  gos- 
pels was  written.  He  has  learned  that  political 
power  is  no  longer  in  the  hands  of  the  learned 
classes,  but  that  all  portions  of  the  community 
feel  and  read  and  think ;  and  that,  as  every  man 
has  a  vote,  the  larger  the  audience  he  talks  to, 
the  simpler  and  clearer  must  be  his  arguments. 
Consequently  the  press  is  giving  us  a  class  of 
debaters  such  as  the  world  never  knew  before, 
and  such  as  no  parliamentary  body  in  the  world 
possesses  even  now  or  can  hope  to  possess  for 
some  time  to  come. 

With  increased  freedom  from  party  reins  and 


272  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

ties,  the  editor  is  continually .  increasing  and  en- 
larging the  interests  to  which  he  addresses  him- 
self. There  is  scarcely  a  newspaper  in  the  United 
States  at  the  present  day  which  restricts  itself 
entirely  to  political  subjects.  Anything  in  the 
nature  of  human  interests,  social  economies, 
moral  reforms,  and  even  the  tastes  and  amuse- 
ments of  the  "people  is  a  fair  subject  for  the 
editor.  He  is  not  only  a  teacher;  he  is  a 
preacher,  and  he  preaches  six  days  in  the  week 
instead  of  one.  In  fact,  he  frequently  extends 
his  ministrations  into  the  seventh  day  also,  to 
the  great  annoyance  of  preachers  who  occupy 
more  dignified  positions,  but  with  not  so  large  a 
congregation. 

The  press  hereafter  must  be  the  principal 
moral,  political  and  social  influence  of  the  coun- 
try. There  is  no  way  to  put  it  backward.  It  is 
being  more  and  more  trusted — more  and  more 
read — more  and  more  depended  upon  to  be  equal 
to  every  emergency ;  and,  to  do  it  justice,  it  sel- 
dom disappoints  expectations — a  statement  that 
cannot  be  made  with  any  shadow  of  truth  of  any 
class  of  statesmen,  except  the  very  best.  Years 
ago  Lamartine  was  laughed  at  as  a  dreamer 
when  he  said,  "  Newspapers  will  ultimately  en- 
gross all  literature ;  there  will  be  nothing  else 
published  but  newspapers,"  but  Lamartine's 
prophecy  is  being  rapidly  fulfilled.  The  news- 
paper is  invading  every  department  of  literature, 


THE   PRESS.  273 

and  giving   the  reader   the  best  at  the   lowest 
price. 

There  is  a  great  hubbub  once  in  a  while  in 
courts  and  among  lawyers  about  what  they  are 
pleased  to  style  trial  by  newspaper,  and  it  is 
atonishing  that  before  a  court  can  reach  any 
important  case,  the  conduct  of  the  case,  its 
merits  and  its  probable  conclusion  have  been  so 
well  foreshadowed  by  the  press  that  interest  in 
the  trial  itself  is  comparatively  slight.  So  gen- 
eral is  the  resort  to  newspapers  for  information 
and  opinion,  that  a  short  time  ago  when  one  of 
the  famous  boodle  aldermen  of  New  York  was 
called  up  for  trial,  it  was  impossible,  under  the 
jury  laws  of  the  State,  to  find  even  one  single 
competent  juror  in  a  city  the  population  of 
which  was  one  million  and  a  half.  Everybody 
had  formed  opinions,  and  the  opinions  generally 
agreed.  They  had  seen  the  testimony — seen  it 
discussed  from  all  sides  and  all  points — discussed 
so  clearly,  that  they  had  no  reasonable  doubt 
of  the  guilt  of  the  accused.  And  all  this  they 
saw  in  the  newspapers. 

It  begins  to  look  as  if  the  time  might  come 
when  lawyers,  courts,  jurors,  judges,  would  all 
be  supplanted  by  the  editor,  and  as  if  soon  after- 
ward teachers  and  preachers  also  might  feel  occa- 
sion to  shake  in  their  shoes.  There  is  no  danger 
in  such  an  event  of  the  editor  becoming  conceited. 
He  always  has  a  regulating  principle  close  at 

18 


274  OUR   COUNTRY'S   FUTURE. 

hand.  It  is  right  in  the  counting-room  at  the 
book-keeper's  desk.  The  public  can  change  its 
opinion  of  .a  newspaper  as  quickly  as  it  can  of  a 
political  candidate ;  and  when  it  does,  the  editor 
knows  of  it  at  once  by  a  class  of  figures  that 
never  are  allowed  to  lie. 

Because  all  this  is  true — and  everybody  admits 
that  it  is — a  great  many  men  of  more  ambition 
than  brains  are  attempting  to  be  full-fledged 
editors  at  a  single  bound.  "  Fools  rush  in  where 
angels  fear  to  tread."  Angels,  who  have  un- 
equalled opportunities  of  knowing  the  true  in- 
wardness of  things,  would  think  twice,  or  oftener, 
before  attempting  to  be  editors,  without  first  going 
through  a  laborious  apprenticeship.  It  seems  the 
easiest  thing  in  the  world  for  a  man  who  has  a 
lot  of  money  of  his  own,  or,  better  still,  some 
money  which  belongs  to  other  people,  to  start  a 
newspaper  and  air  his  own  opinions — which  con- 
sist principally  of  partialities  and  prejudices— 
but  the  end  is  sure  to  be  disastrous.  Many 
daily  papers  have  started  in  our  large  cities 
and  reached  a  large  temporary  circulation,  which 
afterward  disappeared  in  the  mists  of  oblivion 
and  left  nothing  but  debts  behind.  A  successful 
newspaper  is  the  result  of  natural  growth  and 
accretion. 

Henry  Watterson,  editor  of  the  Louisville 
Courier-Journal,  says :  "  The  result  of  any 
newspaper  enterprise  depends  upon  the  char- 


THE  PRESS.  275 

acter  of  the  man  who  engages  in  it — his  capacity 
to  discern  correctly  and  to  adapt  his  paper  to  the 
wants  and  needs  of  the  audience  it  is  meant  to 
serve." 

Whitelaw  Reid,  editor  of  the  New  York 
Tribune,  and  now  Minister  to  France,  says : 
"  Every  great  newspaper  represents  an  intel- 
lectual, a  moral  and  a  material  growth — the  ac- 
cretion of  successive  efforts  from  year  to  year — 
until  it  has  become  an  institution  and  a  power. 
It  is  the  voice  of  the  power  that  the  twenty  or 
thirty  years  of  honest  dealing  with  the  public 
and  just  discussion  of  current  questions  have 
given." 

Horace  Greeley,  the  founder  of  Mr.  Reid's 
paper,  said  truthfully  that  "  The  office  of  a 
newspaper  is  first  to  give  the  history  of  its  time, 
and  afterward  to  deduce  such  theories  or  truths 
from  it  as  shall  be  of  universal  application." 
Can  any  mere  peddler  of  news  and  scandals,  or 
any  man  whose  sole  gratification  is  a  desire  to 
see  his  own  impressions  in  print,  live  up  to  this 
standard  ? 

Conscience,  application  and  money,  as  well  as 
intellect,  is  necessary  to  the  successful  manage- 
ment of  a  newspaper.  George  W.  Childs,  editor 
of  the  Philadelphia  Ledger,  snatched  the  sympa* 
thies  of  all  decent  members  of  the  editorial  fra- 
ternity when  he  said :  "  Few  persons  who  peruse 
the  morning  papers  think  of  the  amount  of  capi- 


276  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

tal  invested,  the  labor  involved,  and  the  care  and 
anxiety  incident  to  the  preparation  of  the  sheet 
which  is  served  so  regularly."  Charles  A.  Dana, 
editor  of  the  New  York  Sun,  says :  u  The  legal 
responsibility  of  newspapers  is  a  reality,  but 
their  moral  responsibility  is  greater  and  more 
important."  B.  L.  Godkin,  editor  of  the  New 
York  Evening  Post,  says :  "  News  is  an  impal- 
pable thing — an  airy  abstraction ;  to  make  it  a 
merchantable  commodity,  somebody  has  to  col- 
lect it,  condense  it,  and  clothe  it  in  language, 
and  its  quality  depends  upon  the  character  of  the 
men  employed  in  doing  this." 

George  William  Curtis,  editor  of  Harper's 
Weekly,  admitting  the  tremendous  influence  of 
the  press,  voices  the  sentiment  of  successful 
editors  everywhere  when  he  says  :  "  If  the  news- 
paper is  the  school  of  the  people,  and  if  upon 
popular  education  and  intelligence  the  success 
and  prosperity  of  popular  government  depends, 
there  is  no  function  in  society  which  requires 
more  conscience  as  well  as  ability." 

Bvidently  newspaper  men  who  amount  to  any- 
thing realize  their  responsibilities.  The  press  is 
not  "  all  right,"  but  it  seems  as  far  from  wrong 
as  conscience  arid  common  sense  can  make  any 
earthly  institution. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE  SCHOOL-ROOM 

THE  late  lamented  Sam  Weller  once  spoke  of 
a  schoolboy,  who,  having  learned  the  alphabet, 
wondered  whether  it  was  worth  going  through  so 
much  to  learn  so  little.  The  same  reflection  has 
come  to  millions  of  Americans  as  they  thought 
of  how  much  time  they  had  spent  in  schooling 
and  how  little  they  knew  when  they  got  out. 

There  are  parts  of  our  vast  country  where  the 
people  are  lucky  enough  to  have  teachers  who 
know  so  little  about  the  theories  of  teaching  that 
they  impart  to  their  pupils  more  information 
than  the  law  demands.  But  in  the  cities  and 
large  towns  where  teaching  has  been  elevated,  or 
more  properly  speaking,  reduced  to  a  science, 
where  the  most  money  is  spent  on  the  schools 
and  where  the  school  terms  are  longest,  the  prev- 
alence of  "  how  not  to  do  it "  is  simply  ap- 
palling. 

The  country  boy  who  goes  to  school  only  four 
or  five  months  in  the  year  knows  quite  as  much 
as  his  city  cousin  who  annually  has  nine  or  ten 
months  of  schooling.  What  does  the  city  pupil 

(277) 


278  OUR  COUNTRY'S   FUTURE. 

get  for  the  double  outlay  of  time,  bad  air,  back- 
ache and  discipline  ? 

As  he  cannot  make  any  subsequent  use  of  his 
accumulation  of  bad  air  and  back-ache,  his  entire 
gain  over  the  country  boy  would  seem  to  be  in 
discipline.  What  does  this  discipline  do  for  him 
in  the  adult  life  for  which  school  life  is  a  prepa- 
ration ? 

Does  it  make  him  a  better  business  man  ?  No. 
If  it  does,  why  is  it  that  the  majority  of  business 
men  in  our  large  cities  are  from  the  rural  dis- 
tricts ?  A  few  months  ago  I  happened  to  be  a 
guest  at  a  dinner  party  at  which  more  than  a 
dozen  men  prominent  in  New  York  business  and 
professional  life  came  together.  A  question 
being  asked  about  a  social  custom  of  thirty  years 
before,  it  gradually  transpired  that  not  one  of  the 
party  had  been  born  or  brought  up  in  the  city  of 
New  York,  a  city  of  which  all  now  were  perma- 
nent citizens. 

I  have  told  this  story  to  prominent  citizens  of 
Chicago,  St.  Louis  and  Cincinnati,  and  in  return 
received  long  lists  of  .the  great  men  of  those 
cities  who  came  from  the  country.  With  some 
fear  and  trembling  I  tried  the  same  story  in  Bos- 
ton at  a  large  public  dinner,  but  the  man  to  whom 
I  told  it — he  was  a  man  who  seemed  to  know 
everybody's  antecedents — replied  that  not  more 
than  one  in  ten  of  Boston's  Brahmans  or  live 
business  men  were  born  at  the  Hub. 


THE  SCHOOL-ROOM.  270 

Congress  is  fairly  a  representative  body,  but  if 
you  will  look  at  the  book  which  gives  biographi- 
cal sketches  of  all  the  members,  you  will  be  as- 
tonished to  find  how  few  cities  and  large  towns 
are  represented  by  men  born  in  them.  Nearly 
all  the  members  were  born  and  brought  up  in 
the  country.  Occasionally  you  will  find  that 
some  representative  or  senator  was  born  in  Phila- 
delphia or  New  York,  but  if  you  look  at  the  head 
of  the  page  you  will  discover  that  he  is  represent- 
ing a  rural  district  of  some  State  other  than 
his  own. 

You  will  find  it  the  same  way  in  the  learned 
professions.  In  law,  medicine  and  theology,  art, 
literature  and  science,  the  men  who  are  most 
prominent  at  all  the  great  centres  of  education 
and  intelligence  date  back  to  some  farmhouse  and 
country  school.  Most  of  these  men  went  to 
college  in  the  course  of  time,  but  whenever  you 
find  one  of  them  and  talk  with  him  so  long  that 
he  feels  inclined  to  unbosom  himself  to  you,  you 
discover  that  the  amount  of  schooling  he  had 
at  his  birthplace  was  very  small.  As  most  of 
these  men  have  passed  the  period  of  their  boy- 
hood by  at  least  a  quarter  of  a  century,  it  is  not 
surprising  to  hear  them  tell  of  school  years  con- 
sisting of  only  three  or  four  months,  and  of  school- 
room exercises  where  the  number  of  text-books 
were  so  few  that  many  of  the  lessons  were  de- 


280  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

livered  orally  by  the  teacher,  and  boys  and  girls 
took  turns  with  one  another's  books. 

If  discipline,  school  discipline,  counts  for  any- 
thing, these  professions  should  be  full  of  city- 
bred  men.  But  they  are  not,  except  at  the  bot- 
tom— way  down  at  the  bottom.  City  schools 
graduate  an  immense  number  of  young  men  who 
enter  seminaries  and  especially  departments  of 
colleges,  to  gain  a  special  education,  but  somehow 
these  are  not  the  men  who  are  prominent  in  the 
new  blood  of  their  respective  professions. 

If  discipline,  so  called,  does  not  make  the  city- 
schooled  youth  superior  to  his  country  cousin, 
what  is  it  good  for?  Well,  it  is  good  to  keep 
the  school-room  in  order.  The  larger  the  school 
the  more  necessary  it  is  for  a  teacher  to  maintain 
order.  In  a  building  containing  two  or  three 
thousand  children,  as  many  school-buildings  in 
the  larger  cities  do,  rigid  discipline  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  this  end.  But,  to  come  back  to 
original  facts,  why  does  it  take  seven  or  eight 
years  to  impart  a  common,  a  very  common, 
school  course  which  any  bright  boy  or  girl  of 
fifteen  years  could  master  alone  and  unaided  in  a 
quarter  of  the  time  ? 

School  systems,  where  there  are  any,  seem 
designed  for  the  special  purpose  of  making  the 
school  a  machine  which  should  do  credit  to  the 
individuals  who  run  it.  This  would  be  excus- 
able with  an  actual  machine  made  of  wood  and 


THE   SCHOOL-ROOM.  281 

metal,  but  children  are  not  tough  enough  to  be 
put  to  such  use.  Besides,  there  is  better  use  for 
them.  It  is  not  odd  that  teachers  should  look 
out  for  themselves  and  for  their  own  records  in 
the  management  of  schools.  If  they  don't  look 
out  for  Number  One  they  will  be  an  exception  to 
all  the  rest  of  humanity.  Nevertheless,  com- 
pared with  the  children,  the  teachers'  number 
one  as  about  one  to  fifty,  and  their  importance 
should  be  judged  from  this  standpoint  of  com- 
parison. 

School  systems  of  study  seem  based  on  the 
capacity  of  the  stupidest  pupils.  All  the  others 
must  crawl  because  the  stupid  ones  cannot 
walk. 

This  isn't  right.  If  armies  were  trained  in 
that  way  we  never  would  have  any  soldiers. 
Let  schools,  like  regiments,  have  their  awkward 
squads  to  be  specially  trained,  so  that  they  may 
catch  up  with  those  who  are  proficient. 

What  are  the  branches  in  which  the  common 
schools  give  elementary  instructions  ?  Spelling, 
reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  geography,  and 
grammar.  The  farther  from  the  large  city,  the 
surer  the  student  is  of  getting  any  instruction 
beyond  those  branches  during  the  first  six  or 
seven  years  of  a  common-school  course.  He  may 
be  qualified  by  home  reading  to  go  into  the  nat- 
ural sciences  or  into  mathematics  at  an  early 
age,  but  that  isn't  part  of  the  system.  It  seldom 


282  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

pleases  the  teacher  of  a  graded  school  to  be  told 
of  such  acquirements  of  a  new  pupil.  The 
school  exists  not  to  improve  the  intelligence  of 
the  pupil  from  the  standpoint  at  which  the 
teacher  finds  it,  but  to  give  him  such  instruction 
as  the  teacher  is  already  detailed  and  instructed 
by  law  to  give.  A  boy  may  forget  all  he  knows 
of  natural  science,  or  algebra,  or  geometry,  in  the 
many  years  in  which  he  is  drilled  in  elementary 
studies  leading  up  to  the  branches  which  he 
already  understands. 

In  the  country  districts  boys  are  often  fit  to 
pass  rigid  examinations  for  matriculation  at  col- 
lege at  the  age  of  fifteen  years.  But  the  boy 
who  does  not  begin  to  go  to  school  until  he  is 
eight  years  of  age  finds  himself  at  fifteen,  in  a 
city,  merely  fit  to  enter  a  high-school,  and  not  a 
very  high  school  either.  Some  of  the  most  noted 
men  in  our  country's  history  graduated  from 
college  at  sixteen  or  seventeen  years.  The  cur- 
riculum of  a  college  in  those  days  was  not  as 
high  as  now.  Nevertheless,  the  graduates  cer- 
tainly gave  a  very  good  account  of  themselves 
from  their  earliest  entrance  into  public  life.  One 
of  them  was  Alexander  Hamilton,  who  graduated 
at  seventeen,  and  who  elaborated  a  system  of 
financial  management  which  a  whole  century  of 
successive  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury  have  not 
considered  themselves  competent  to  improve 
upon.  A  very  long  list  of  men  of  similar  prom- 


THE  SCHOOL-ROOM.  283 

inence  might  be  given,  but  such,  illustrations  are 
not  necessary.  Any  intelligent  man  who  has 
been  to  school  knows  that  a  great  deal  of  his 
class-room  time  has  been  entirely  at  his  own  dis- 
posal, for  the  lessons  were  easily  memorized ; 
and  therefore  his  hands  were  idle  and  Satan 
found  something  for  them  to  do.  The  worst 
boys  in  school  can  often  be  found  among  the 
scholars  who  stand  highest  in  the  classes,  and 
for  the  very  natural  reason  that  there  is  nothing 
to  occupy  their  minds  during  a  large  portion  of 
the  school  time. 

Seriously,  what  is  there  about  the  elementary 
branches,  as  taught  in  our  common  schools 
almost  anywhere,  that  should  consume  such  an 
immense  amount  of  time?  In  the  Southern 
States  a  number  of  the  despised  blacks,  children 
of  slaves  who  themselves  could  date  back  their 
ancestors  from  generations  of  slaves,  became 
quite  proficient  in  elementary  branches  during  a 
year  or  two,  lounging  about  military  camps  in 
the  capacity  of  servants.  Special  schools  were 
founded,  as  soon  as  the  war  ended,  by  missionary 
societies,  which  prepared  courses  of  study  which 
they  considered  within  the  comprehension  of  the 
Anglo-African  mind.  Of  course  there  were  a 
great  many  stupid  blacks ;  but,  while  some  of 
these  stupid  children  were  making  faces  at  text- 
books and  drawing  inartistic  pictures  on  slates, 
their  old  fathers  and  mothers  were  learning  from 


284          OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

the  same  children's  text-books  more  rapidly  than 
the  best  children  in  the  public  schools  of  the 
North  are  allowed  to  learn. 

Sir  John  Lubbock  complains  that  "A  thousand 
hours  in  the  most  precious  seed-time  of  life  of 
millions  of  children  spent  in  learning  that  i  must 
follow  e  in  conceive,  and  precede  it  in  believe ; 
that  two  e's  must,  no  one  knows  why,  come  to- 
gether in  proceed  and  exceed,  and  be  separate/!  in 
precede  and  accede ;  that  uncle  must  be  spelled 
with  a  c,  but  ankle  with  a  k, — while  lessons  in 
health  and  thrift,  sewing  and  cooking,  which 
should  make  the  life  of  the  poor  tolerable,  and 
elementary  singing  and  drawing  which  should 
make  it  pleasant,  and  push  out  lower  and  degrad- 
ing amusements,  are  in  many  cases  almost  vainly 
trying  to  gain  admission." 

Take  the  course  all  through,  and  what  is 
there  about  it  that  should  require  any  great  con- 
sumption of  time  ?  Reading  certainly  is  not 
hard  to  acquire.  Children  out  of  school  learn  it 
in  spite  of  any  efforts  to -hold  them  back.  Spell- 
ing is  learned  more  effectually  through  reading 
than  from  any  text-book.  Writing  requires  only 
a  model  of  which  copies  may  be  made,  for  there 
is  no  business  man  in  New  York  or  in  any  other 
large  city  who  writes  a  copy-book  hand.  If  he 
did,  he  would  be  considered  incompetent  for  what- 
ever position  he  may  occupy.  The  first  thing 
that  a  boy  must  learn  on  leaving  school  is  to  un- 


THE  SCHOOL-ROOM.  285 

learn  his  writing-lessons.  Arithmetic  undoubt- 
edly requires  considerable  practice  to  make  the 
pupil  perfect  and  quick  in  computations,  but  as 
it  consists  entirely  of  applications  of  the  first 
four  rules,  why  is  it  that  so  much  time  is  spent 
over  the  text-books  and  very  abstract  propositions 
and  problems  ?  Text-books  of  arithmetic  seem 
to  be  skilfully  designed  for  the  purpose  of  keep- 
ing the  child  from  practical  knowledge  on  the 
subject  as  long  as  possible.  Examples  that  are 
called  practical  are  given  in  many  of  these  books, 
but  only  after  a  large  amount  of  figuring,  the 
purpose  of  which  the  pupil  is  not  allowed  to 
clearly  understand.  A  man  whose  education  in 
figures  has  been  obtained  on  the  sidewalk  with  a 
piece  of  chalk  will  cypher  more  accurately  and 
quickly  any  problem  of  ordinary  nature  that  may 
be  given  him  than  his  own  son  or  daughter  who 
has  been  several  years  in  school,  because  he 
understands  the  relations  and  purposes  of  the 
factors,  which  never  seem  to  be  impressed  upon 
the  child. 

General  F.  A.  Walker,  once  superintendent 
of  the  census  and  now  president  of  the  Boston 
Institute  of  Technology,  says :  "  The  old-fash- 
ioned readiness  and  correctness  of  cyphering  have 
been  to  a  large  degree  sacrificed  by  the  methods 
which  it  is  now  proposed  to  reform.  A  false 
arithmetic  has  grown  up  and  has  largely  crowded 


286  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

out  of  place  that  true  arithmetic,  which  is  nothing 
but  the  art  of  numbers." 

Geography  is  so  largely  a  matter  of  memory 
of  the  eye  that  no  man  who  was  denied  the 
privilege  of  studying  this  science  while  he  was  at 
school  ever  thinks  it  necessary  to  spend  a  great 
amount  of  time  over  it  afterward,  even  if  his 
business  requires  him  to  have  a  practical  knowl- 
edge of  the  subject.  It  is  simply  a  question  of 
sight  and  of  memory,  just  as  is  the  case  with 
knowledge  of  localities  which  he  may  visit  either 
to  a  great  or  small  extent,  yet  geography  in  the 
public  schools  is  divided  into  two,  three,  and 
sometimes  five  different  books,  by  the  use  of 
which  the  pupil  goes  again  and  again  over  the 
same  lessons,  obtaining  in  the  end  no  more  in- 
formation than  that  he  would  get  by  a  few  days' 
deliberate  study  of  an  atlas  or  a  set  of  maps. 

Prof.  Geikie,  a  recognized  authority  on  this 
subject,  says :  "  Every  question  of  geography 
should  be  one  which  requires  for  its  answer  that 
the  children  have  actually  seen  something  with 
their  own  eyes  and  taken  note  of  it."  This  is 
reasonable  ;  it  would  also  be  practicable  if  globes 
and  large  maps  were  in  the  class-rooms,  but  gen- 
erally they  are  conspicuous  only  by  their  absence. 

It  is  quite  true  that  grammar  must  occupy 
considerable  of  the  pupils'  time.  For  all  the 
persons  who  have  studied  it,  there  seem  very 
few  of  any  age  at  the  present  time  who  are  able 


THE   SCHOOL-ROOM.  287 

to  apply  the  principles  of  this  science  in  such  a 
mauner  that  they  habitually  write  and  speak 
correctly.  But  this  isn't  so  much  the  fault  of 
the  pupil  and  of  the  teacher  as  of  the  text- 
books from  which  the  science  shall  be  studied. 
Good  example,  from  which  adults  learn  grammar 
more  correctly  and  rapidly  than  in  any  other 
way,  seems  to  be  considered  too  good  for  children, 
so  they  are  given  text-books  with  definitions 
utterly  beyond  their  comprehension — definitions 
so  subdivided  that  there  is  nothing  which  the 
intelligent  teacher  so  dreads  as  a  few  intelligent 
questions  on  the  subject  from  a  pupil  on  the 
grammar-lesson  of  the  day.  I  have  seen  an  in- 
telligent man,  himself  a  college  graduate,  and  a 
public  speaker  of  high  reputation  and  elegant 
style,  labor  with  one  of  his  children  over  a  lesson 
in  grammar,  and  finally  give  up  in  despair  and 
toss  the  book  across  the  room.  If  a  man  of  such 
character  is  unable  to  understand  a  grammatical 
text-book,  what  can  be  expected  of  the  child  ? 

The  greater  the  scholar  or  teacher,  the  greater 
is  his  contempt  for  text-books  of  grammar.  Old 
Roger  Ascham,  tutor  to  Queen  Elizabeth  of 
England,  delights  in  saying  that  his  distin- 
guished pupil  "  never  yet  tooke  Greek  or  Latin 
Grammer  in  her  hande  after  the  first  declininge 
of  a  Noun  and  a  Verb."  A  more  celebrated 
teacher,  John  Locke,  complained  that  "  Our 
children  are  forced  to  stick  unreasonably  in 


OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

grammatical  flats  and  shallows."  Dr.  Park- 
hurst  said  recently :  "  The  way  for  a  boy  to  talk 
correctly  is  to  talk  subject  to  correction — not  to 
apply  himself  to  linguistic  anatomy,  surgery 
and  dissection.  I  studied  grammar  in  the  ordi- 
nary way  about  three  weeks — just  long  enough 
to  find  out  what  a  genius  some  people  can  show 
for  putting  asunder  what  God  hath  joined  to- 
gether. It  is  a  splendid  device  for  using  up  a 
boy's  time  and  souring  his  disposition." 

Well,  all  this  routine  is  being  imposed  upon 
the  children,  and  the  little  wretches  are  losing 
spirit  and  impulse  through  the  delay  to  which 
the  cleverer  ones  are  subjected  and  the  lack  of 
clearness  which  causes  the  stupider  ones  to 
despair.  Nothing  whatever  is  done  toward  train- 
ing the  senses  and  physical  intelligence  of  the 
child.  They  do  this  sort  of  thing  abroad,  but 
for  some  reason  Americans  are  not  allowed  to 
follow  the  foreigners'  example.  Apparently  our 
children  have  a  divine  call  to  whatever  handi- 
work may  fall  to  their  lot  thereafter  in  the  world, 
for  certainly  they  get  as  little  training  in  it  as 
the  twelve  apostles  had  in  theology  before  they 
were  called  to  preach  and  teach.  The  French 
or  German,  the  Swedish  child,  and  even  many 
a  Russian  child,  is  taught  to  use  his  hands 
and  his  eyes  and  all  his  senses  that  can  be 
applied  to  practical  affairs,  but  the  American 
child  gets  no  opportunity  of  that  sort,  except  in 


THE  SCHOOL-ROOM.  289 

the  few  schools  which  conform  more  or  less  to 
the  kindergarten  system.  We  have  a  few  tech- 
nical schools  in  large  cities,  but  they  are  re- 
garded as  means  to  finish  a  course  of  education 
instead  of  part  of  the  ordinary  elementary  in- 
struction. 

When  technical  education,  which  means  simply 
the  use  of  the  hands  and  eyes,  is  spoken  of  to 
members  of  Boards  of  Education  and  Superinten- 
dents of  common  school  systems  in  large  cities, 
the  result  is  generally  an  impatient  gesture  or 
word.  There  is  no  room  for  that  sort  of  thing, 
we  are  told;  beside,  it  is  a  mere  notion  of  theor- 
ists. The  general  run  of  children  are  not  equal 
to  it  and  would  be  more  troubled  than  benefited 
by  it. 

Well,  experience  is  more  valuable  than  argu- 
ment in  answering  assertions.  A  few  years  ago 
a  man  who  had  scarcely  ever  done  any  work  in 
the  school-room  brought  some  theories  on  the 
subject  of  technical  education  over  here  from 
Germany,  although  he  was  an  American.  He 
went  to  Philadelphia  and  started  a  little  class  for 
the  instruction  of  teachers.  The  majority  of 
common  school  teachers  sneered  at  his  theories, 
so  he  proposed  to  silence  all  further  opposition  by 
a  practical  test.  He  started  a  model  school  for 
the  purpose  of  demonstrating  that  what  he  as- 
serted was  practicable.  He  did  not  select  the 
brighter  pupils  in  the  public  schools,  but  went 

19 


290  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

deliberately  into  the  streets  and  picked  up  at  ran- 
dom a  lot  of  little  gutter-snipes  who  had  never 
been  to  school  at  all,  or  who,  if  they  had,  were 
persistent  truants  ever  since.  In  a  short  time 
people  saw — for  it  was  necessary  to  have  them 
see  in  order  to  make  them  believe  at  all — these 
ignorant  children  of  the  street  doing  better  tech- 
nical work  in  several  directions  than  could  be 
found  anywhere  else  in  the  city  except  in  estab- 
lishments paying  high  prices  for  artistic  labor. 
They  carved  wood,  they  modelled  in  clay, 
they  made  designs  on  paper,  they  stamped 
leather  and  brass  and  even  showed  some  capacity 
for  engraving  and  coloring  in  the  direction  of  the 
higher  arts. 

The  effect  of  this  display  should  have  been  to 
have  given  the  system  prominence  and  practical 
demonstration  in  the  public  schools,  but  it 
amounted  to  little  except  the  gathering  of  a  few 
wide-awake  teachers  who  wished  to  learn  to  teach 
as  the  theorist  had  been  teaching.  A  few  of 
those  who  took  the  course  went  into  public 
school  work  elsewhere  and  have  succeeded 
admirably  ever  since.  In  the  city  of  Elizabeth, 
New  Jersey,  any  child  who  wishes  can  now  re- 
ceive a  technical  education  under  the  direction  of 
the  common  school  authorities.  The  work  be- 
gan in  a  single  school  with  a  single  teacher.  It 
has  since  been  extended  to  all  the  public  schools 
cf  the  city,  and  two  teachers  work  hard  from 


THE  SCHOOL-ROOM.  291 

morning  until  night.  A  strange  development  of 
this  course  of  teaching  deserves  notice.  Eliza- 
beth is  a  city  containing  a  great  many  large 
manufacturing  establishments,  and  the  modest 
young  woman  who  had  charge  of  the  technical 
education  in  the  public  schools  was  amazed  one 
day  to  receive  a  written  request  from  a  number 
of  master  mechanics  in  different  establishments 
for  a  night  school  for  their  own  benefit,  for  which 
they  were  willing  to  pay  freely ;  and  some  of  them 
told  the  teacher  that  their  attention  to  the  sub- 
ject was  first  attracted  by  their  own  children  do- 
ing clearer  and  more  rapid  work  in  the  line  of 
design  than  they,  these  master  mechanics,  who 
had  been  in  the  business  all  their  lives,  had  ever 
yet  succeeded  in  doing.  So  for  months  there 
was  visible  the  astonishing  spectacle  of  a  lot  of 
middle-aged  men  being  taught  their  own  business 
by  a  young  woman  who  herself  knew  nothing 
whatever  of  their  business. 

The  helplessness  of  the  average  American 
teacher  when  the  subject  of  technical  education 
is  mentioned  was  shown  amusingly  a  few  years 
ago  when  one  of  the  several  superintendents  who 
have  general  charge  of  the  New  York  city  schools 
devised  a  system  of  teaching  from  what  he  called 
object  lessons.  He  prepared  a  manual  and  a  set 
of  charts  and  the  Board  of  Education  in  compli- 
ment to  him  purchased  a  great  many  and  placed 
them  in  the  class-rooms.  But  it  was  almost  im- 


292  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

possible  to  have  them  used  unless  the  superin- 
tendent himself  took  the  work  in  hand.  The 
teachers  didn't  understand  it.  They  said  they 
couldn't  get  the  hang  of  it.  The  truth  was  they 
had  never  had  any  education  of  the  same  kind 
themselves  and  the  matter  was  as  foreign  to  their 
intelligence  as  Hebrew  or  Sanscrit  would  have 
been.  But,  mark  the  difference ;  when  news  of 
this  system  penetrated  the  wilds  of  the  rowdy 
West,  demands  and  orders  for  the  material  to 
work  with  came  Bast  rapidly,  and  I  was  told  that 
a  single  State  in  the  new  West  made  more  use  of 
this  system  than  all  the  Eastern  and  Middle 
States  combined.  The  West  knows  what  it 
wants ;  the  teachers  are  closer  to  the  children 
than  in  the  Bast.  This  may  be  one  of  the  bless- 
ings, or  perhaps  penalties,  of  life  in  a  new 
country,  but,  whatever  it  may  be,  the  results 
seem  to  justify  a  wish  that  all  of  us  could  be 
transplanted  to  a  new  country,  for  at  least  a  little 
while,  from  the  older  centres  of  our  American 
civilization. 

General  Walker,  president  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Institute  of  Technology,  says  :  "  The  intro- 
duction of  shopwork  into  the  public  system  of 
education  cannot  fail  to  have  a  most  beneficial 
influence  in  promoting  a  respect  for  labor  and  in 
overcoming  the  false  and  pernicious  passion  of 
our  young  people  for  crowding  themselves  into 
overdone  and  underpaid. departments  where  they 


THE  SCHOOL-ROOM.  293 

may  escape  manual  exertion."  Col.  Auchmuty, 
the  philanthropic  founder  of  New  York's  great 
'  Trades  School,"  says  :  "  What  scientific  schools 
are  to  the  engineer  and  architect — what  the  law 
school  and  the  medical  school  are  to  the  lawyer 
and  the  physician,  or  what  the  business  college 
is  to  the  clerk — trade  schools  must  be  to  the 
future  mechanics."  President  Butler,  late  of 
Columbia  College's  faculty,  now  president  of  the 
Industrial  Association's  great  model  school,  says : 
"  Manual  training  does  not  claim  admittance  as 
a  favor ;  it  demands  it  as  a  right.  The  future 
course  of  study  will  not  be  a  Procrustean  struc- 
ture— absolutely  and  unqualifiedly  alike  for  all 
localities  and  for  all  schools  ;  but  it  will  have  in 
it  a  principle,  and  that  principle  will  be  founded 
on  a  scientific  basis — the  highest  duty -of  the 
educator  will  be  its  application  to  his  own  par- 
ticular needs  and  demands." 

Is  the  experience  of  practical  educators  like 
these  to  be  cast  aside  in  favor  of  the  antiquated 
theories  of  teaching  now  in  vogue  ? 

Any  one  who  wonders  why  country  boys  be- 
come prominent  city  men,  and  why  there  are 
about  as  many  Western  men  in  New  York  city 
in  business  as  there  are  men  from  the  East,  can 
find  out  by  looking  closely  to  the  difference  be- 
tween city  and  country  systems  of  education. 
If  a  country  village  is  too  small  to  have  a  high 
school,  it  is  nevertheless  generally  the  case  that 


294  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

the  higher  branches  are  taught  to  a  large  extent 
in  the  commonest  of  schools.  College  graduates 
find  the  profession  of  teaching  a  very  handy 
means  of  paying  their  expenses  while  looking 
about  the  country  and  seeing  where  to  begin  the 
practice  of  law  or  medicine,  or  perhaps  drop  into 
the  pulpit.  Boys  and  girls  of  twelve  or  fourteen 
years  may  be  found  studying  physiology,  algebra 
and  geometry,  natural  sciences  and  chemistry  in 
schools  all  over  the  new  West  at  a  time  when 
children  of  the  same  age  in  the  large  Eastern 
cities  are  slowly  wrestling  with  the  lessons  and 
elementary  text-books  of  geography  and  gram- 
mar and  arithmetic.  When  competitive  exami- 
nations for  West  Point  cadetships  are  held  in  the 
West  the  general  trouble  is  that  the  candidates 
are  too  young  to  enter  the  military  academy  even 
could  they  pass  the  necessary  examination  and 
succeed  in  winning  the  competitive  prize.  I  saw 
such  an  examination  myself  in  one  Western 
town,  which  was  narrowed  down  to  two  boys. 
These  youngsters,  the  ablest  of  all  the  appli- 
cants, were  aged  respectively  thirteen  and  four- 
teen years.  They  passed  rigid  examinations  in 
mathematics,  with  scarcely  a  mark  against  them. 
That  is  more  than  could  be  done  by  any  boys  of 
similar  age  in  the  public  schools  of  New  York 
and  Brooklyn  and  Philadelphia,  the  three  largest 
cities  in  the  Union. 

The  rapidity  with  which  children  pass  through 


THE  SCHOOL-ROOM.  295 

text-books  in  the  newer  States  and  more  sparsely 
settled  districts  is  the  cause  of  the  great  number 
of  so-called  colleges  which  are  found  all  over  our 
country.  There  are  more  colleges  by  title  in  the 
United  States  than  in  all  the  rest  of  the  world 
beside.  Their  standards  are  never  those  of  the 
universities  of  Burope — seldom  of  Yale  or  Har- 
vard. But  they  are  higher  than  those  of  the 
ordinary  high  schools,  and  the  young  man  or 
young  woman  who  passes  through  them  has  a 
very  fair  general  education,  and  is  fitted  to  go  on 
by  private  reading  to  almost  any  extent.  In  the 
larger  cities  of  the  Bast  such  opportunities  are 
few.  There  is,  perhaps,  a  single  large  institu- 
tion in  each  city,  like  the  High  School  of  Phila- 
delphia or  the  Normal  College  of  New  York,  at 
which  girls  are  educated,  or  the  College  of  the 
City  of  New  York,  to  which  the  better  boys  are 
sent  for  a  full  college  course  if  they  desire  it. 
But  these  same  facilities  are  demanded  and  ob- 
tained in  the  newer  cities  at  a  rate  that  would 
astonish  the  Bastern  person  who  chose  to  look 
into  the  subject. 

The  most  pressing  need  of  our  common  school 
system  is  more  teachers.  With  more  teachers 
greater  personal  attention  could  be  paid  to  each 
pupil,  and  smaller  time  would  be  required  for 
the  ordinary  school  course.  In  the  cities  it  is 
the  rule  that  boys  and  girls  must  leave  school  at 
a  very  early  age  in  order  to  help  earn  a  living 


296  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

for  their  respective  families.  The  majority  of 
them  are  children  of  parents  who  are  very  poor, 
who  have  to  work  terribly  hard  and  save  in  every 
possible  way  in  order  to  keep  their  families  from 
starvation.  Consequently  the  children  go  to 
work  as  soon  as  they  are  large  enough  to  be 
accepted  by  any  employer  at  any  sort  of  occupa- 
tion. Their  subsequent  opportunities  for  learn- 
ing anything  are  necessarily  limited.  They 
must  learn  by  general  reading  if  at  all,  except 
for  such  few  opportunities  as  are  granted  them 
by  night  schools,  a  beneficent  class  of  educa- 
tional institutions,  which  those  who  most  need 
them  are  least  able  to  attend,  for  how  much 
studying  can  a  boy  or  girl  do  after  nine  or  ten 
hours  of  work"  in  a  counting-room  or  shop  or 
factory  ?  With  more  teachers  our  city  children 
could  obtain  a  fair  high  school  education  at  the 
age  of  fourteen,  and  be  better  able  to  make  their 
way  in  the  world  at  whatever  their  work  might  be. 
The  best  finishing  school  that  the  people  of  the 
United  States  have  ever  been  able  to  avail  them- 
selves of  is  the  course  of  home  reading  which  one 
society  or  other  has  within  a  few  years  devised, 
and  which  some  of  them  are  conducting  with 
great  care  and  success.  Systems  of  reading  and 
consecutive  study  are  devised,  books  are  supplied, 
individuals  are  selected  to  receive  and  inspect  ex- 
amination papers  to  show  the  capacity  of  the 
students  and  to  give  suggestions  according  as 


THE  SCHOOL-ROOM.  297 

the  students  may  seem  to  require,  and  in  this 
way  one  single  society  has  now  eighty  thousand 
students,  with  more  than  a  hundred  instructors 
and  inspectors.  This  system  might  be  definitely 
extended  at  very  small  expense  by  the  various 
States  as  part  of  the  local  system  of  education. 
Until  the  blunders  of  the  common  school 
system  are  modified  or  done  away  with,  it  is  as 
little  as  the  State  can  do  to  give  an  intelligent 
child  this  much  of  consolation  and  assistance 
for  the  time  that  it  has  been  compelled  to  lose 
by  incompetent  tuition  in  the  public  schools. 


CHAPTER   XX. 

THE   POLITICIAN. 

THE  one  nuisance  of  which  the  people  of  the 
United  States  need  most  to  rid  themselves  is  the 
professional  politician. 

This  is  an  old  story,  but  by  no  possibility  can 
it  be  repeated  too  often. 

There  is  scarcely  a  man  of  affairs  who  will 
not  say  on  reading  these  lines  that  there  is  a 
great  deal  to  say  upon  the  other  side,  and  when 
he  is  closely  questioned  his  explanation  amounts 
to  about  this :  that  a  good  many  politicians  are 
first-rate  fellows. 

This  is  exactly  so,  and  herein  is  the  root  of 
the  trouble. 

It  may  safely  be  said  in  general  terms  that 
there  is  no  use  of  any  one  going  into  politics  as 
a  profession  who  does  not  fulfil  the  definition  of 
a  first-rate  fellow.  His  good-fellowship  is  his 
original  capital,  and  slowly  it  becomes  his  prin- 
cipal stock  in  trade. 

Scarcely  a  politician  who  has  made  a  great 
mark  in  the  world  has  failed  to  be  a  good  fellow. 
It  is  unnecessary  to  give  names,  and  also  inad 

(298J 


THE   POLITICIAN.  299 

visable,  because  it  would  be  almost  impossible 
not  to  hit  some  friend  of  the  reader,  or  some  his- 
torical character  whom  the  reader  has  learned  to 
admire.  Nevertheless,  facts  are  very  stubborn 
things,  and  one  of  them  is,  that  a  good  fellow 
may  do  more  harm  in  politics  than  Satan  him- 
self is  usually  capable  of  doing  in  morals. 

Politicians  and  statesmen  very  often  are  con- 
founded with  one  another.  The  only  possible 
point  of  resemblance  between  them  is  that  both 
have  a  great  deal  to  do  with  public  affairs.  On 
this  basis,  if  the  two  men  are  alike,  we  might  as 
well  say  that  the  iackal  and  lion  are  one  and 
the  same. 

Distinguished  from  the  statesman,  the  poli- 
tician is  a  man  who  goes  into  public  affairs  as  a 
matter  of  business,  for  the  sake  of  making  his 
living.  There  is  no  place  in  any  honest  com- 
munity which  such  a  man  should  be  allowed  to 
fill. 

The  purpose  of  the  statesman  is  to  serve  his 
country.  Unless  he  has  this  purpose  it  is  im- 
possible, no  matter  how  great  his  ability,  for  him 
to  be  a  statesman  at  all.  The  purpose  of  the 
politician  is  to  benefit  himself. 

This  does  not  mean  that  the  politician  is 
necessarily  a  man  without  conscience  or  char- 
acter. Very  often  he  has  a  great  deal  of  both, 
but  the  damning  point  of  his  character  from 
start  to  finish  is  that  self  comes  first. 


300  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

The  starting-point  of  the  politician  who  suc- 
ceeds is  one  which  he  has  made  in  view  of  a 
desired  end,  and  that  end  is  his  own  personal 
advancement  and  profit.  Consequently  he  looks 
upon  every  question  of  the  day  not  according  to 
the  requirements  of  the  people  and  the  common- 
wealth, but  to  those  of  himself.  A  measure,  no 
matter  how  beneficial,  that  may  be  proposed  is 
not  considered  by  him  for  an  instant  in  its  effect 
upon  the  general  weal,  but  upon  himself,  his 
projects  and  purposes.  He  wishes  the  people  no 
harm ;  he  is  one  of  them  himself.  He  simply 
wishes  to  get  a  living  out  of  them,  and  as  good  a 
living  as  he  can.  It  is  not  unfair  to  say  that  the 
burglar  regards  life  in  exactly  the  same  manner. 
The  burglar  is  not  always  a  bad  fellow.  Some- 
times he  has  a  family,  whom  he  treats  very  well. 
He  gives  them  a  good  home,  dresses  his  wife 
properly,  never  beats  her,  sends  his  children  to 
school  and  to  Sunday-school,  and  would  a  great 
deal  rather  find  a  lump  of  gold  lying  around 
loose  among  the  rocks  somewhere  than  to  go  off 
and  steal  a  lot  of  plate  and  melt  it  up  into  a 
lump  afterward.  But  business  is  business ;  he 
has  selected  that  particular  method  of  life,  and 
he  must  shape  his  actions  accordingly.  The 
politician  is  in  entirely  the  same  position  toward 
the  public.  He  does  not  wish  the  public  any 
harm,  and  probably  on  Fourth  of  July  and 
Washington's  birthday  his  heart  indulges  in 


THE  POLITICIAN.  301 

some  very  honest  thrills  of  patriotic  emotion. 
But  if  it  chances  to  be  necessary  to  his  purposes 
that  a  little  job  should  be  set  up  on  either  of 
those  national  anniversaries,  he  never  postpones 
the  operation  until  the  next  day. 

Quite  frequently  the  politician  is  a  man  of  suf- 
ficient intellect,  knowledge,  foresight  and  experi- 
ence to  creditably  fill  any  office  to  which  he  may 
aspire  or  to  which  he  has  been  elected.  But  no 
matter  in  what  place  he  .may  find  himself,  his 
conduct  is  based  upon  his  own  interests  and  not 
those  for  which  the  servants  of  the  public  in  all 
countries  and  under  all  forms  of  government 
consider  themselves  elected  or  appointed. 

His  methods  are  as  unlike  those  of  the  states- 
man or  the  public-spirited  citizen  as  the  wildest 
imagination  can  conceive.  Some  extraordinary 
stories  have  got  into  print  regarding  the  methods 
pursued  by  certain  politicians  to  attain  desirable 
ends,  and  some  of  these  stories  may  be  untrue, 
but  the  wildest  of  them  do  not  exceed  some  facts 
that  could  be  given  to  the  public  of  almost  any 
congressional  district  of  the  United  States.  Prin- 
ciple is  not  allowed  to  stand  in  the  politician's 
way.  Politics  is  business  to  him  and  everything 
is  fair  in  business.  If  he  wants  an  office  for  him- 
self or  for  any  one  for  whom  he  is  working,  the 
platform  of  his  party  or  the  resolutions  of  a  com- 
mittee or  convention  do  not  trouble  him  in  any 
respect.  He  is  not  working  for  principles :  he  is 


302 

working  for  power;  and  he  can  jump  a  resolution, 
or  a  syllogism  of  politics,  as  easily  as  a  spirited 
hunter  can  jump  a  low  fence.  He  can  explain 
his  action  afterward,  too,  and  do  it  so  successfully 
as  to  puzzle  the  most  determined  of  his  enemies 
unless  they  too  chance  to  be  politicians. 

The  method  of  the  politician  is  as  cold  and 
methodical  and  business-like  as  that  of  a  man  in 
any  ordinary  commercial  occupation.  The  late 
Jim  Fisk  started  in  business  in  Wall  street  on  a 
nominal  capital  of  one  gold  watch,  which  was 
strongly  suspected  of  being  plated,  but  he  made 
his  way  to  the  top  of  railroad  affairs  in  a  com- 
paratively short  time.  The  politician  frequently 
starts  with  capital  even  more  contemptible,  but, 
like  the  unlamented  financier,  he  turns  everything 
to  account  in  a  manner  that  no  statesman  or  re- 
spectable citizen  would  dare  adopt. 

An  example  from  the  political  history  of  the 
city  of  New  York  may  perhaps  be  to  the  point 
by  way  of  illustration.  A  dry-goods  salesman 
out  of  employment  during  a  political  canvass 
thought  he  saw  an  opportunity  to  make  some 
money  by  going  into  politics.  His  sole  capital 
was  personal  acquaintance  with  a  number  of  men 
whose  families  took  in  sewing  for  a  large  manu- 
facturer of  clothing.  The  salesman  was  a  good- 
looking,  well-dressed  fellow  and  he  went  to  the 
manufacturer  and  said  :  "  See  here,  nearly  all  of 
your  people  live  in ward.  I  live  there  my- 


THE   POLITICIAN.  303 

self  and  I  have  a  great  many  acquaintances. 
Smith  is  up  for  Assembly  in  that  ward.  Now  if 
you  will  just  hint  to  your  people  that  Smith  will 
make  a  very  good  member  of  Assembly  and  will 
always  keep  an  eye  on  the  interests  of  the  work- 
ingman,  I  will  buy  all  my  clothing  here  and  I 
will  persuade  my  friends  to  come  here  also."  The 
head  of  the  establishment  thought  over  the  propo- 
sition for  a  day  or  two,  saw  no  possibility  of  losing 
anything  by  it  and  did  see  a  possibility  of  mak- 
ing something,  so  he  acted  upon  the  suggestion 
which  he  had  received.  The  politician  then  went 
among  the  sewing  people  employed  by  other 
concerns  and  told  them  that  the  first  house  he 
had  approached  had  satisfied  its  men  that  Smith, 
who  was  running  for  the  Assembly,  would  be  a 
capital  friend  of  the  workingman  if  he  could  get 
into  office.  Then  he  went  to  the  candidate  and 
deliberately  contracted  to  procure  him  a  majority 
for  a  given  sum  of  money  to  be  paid  after  election 
in  case  the  candidate  were  to  succeed.  Word 
went  around  in  a  little  while  among  the  working 
people  of  the  ward  that  Smith  would  be  their 
champion  if  he  reached  the  Assembly.  The  up- 
shot of  it  was  that  Smith  was  elected  by  a  hand- 
some majority  and  the  man  who  had  contracted 
to  furnish  the  majority  had  about  three  thousand 
dollars  in  his  pocket.  How  Smith  got  even  in 
the  operation,  as  his  salary  for  the  entire  term 
for  which  he  was  elected  was  only  and  exactly 


304  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

three  thousand  dollars,  the  sum  which  he  paid 
his  trusty  worker,  may  seem  to  have  nothing  to 
do  with  the  subject ;  nevertheless  it  is  a  question 
well  worth  working  over  in  the  mind  of  the 
reader. 

With  the  money  thus  secured  the  politician 
was  able  to  live  handsomely  for  some  little  time, 
and  the  prestige  which  he  gained  as  a  rising 
young  statesman — for  people  are  possessed  to 
give  the  appellation  of  statesman  to  any  suc- 
cessful worker  in  politics — went  around  in  city 
circles  which  men  ambitious  for  office  most  fre- 
quent, and  long  before  another  election  day  fell 
due  the  politician  was  in  demand  and  able  to 
make  his  own  terms.  He  became  the  agent  of 
two  or  three  different  candidates  in  two  or  three 
different  wards  or  districts,  and  by  fulfilling  all 
promises  which  he  already  had  made  he  was  able 
to  achieve  far  greater  financial  and  political  suc- 
cesses than  during  his  first  effort. 

Here  it  is  important  to  state  that  the  successful 
politician  is  not,  as  the  general  public  suppose 
him,  a  most  unscrupulous  liar,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, a  man  of  his  word.  His  capital,  after  he 
has  embarked  in  business,  consists  largely  of 
promises,  of  the  fact  that  he  dare  not  break  a 
promise  to  any  one  of  any  consequence.  From 
this  comes  the  odd  fact  that  the  most  dangerous 
politicians  are  frequently  declared  by  their  ad- 
herents and  employes  to  be  "  square  men,"  and  no 


THE   POLITICIAN.  305 

one  who  knows  them  can  say  anything  to  the 
contrary.  The  late  lamented  Mike  Cregan, 
who,  although  a  mere  politician,  became  a  man 
of  national  note  at  a  certain  period,  went  down 
in  the  estimation  of  his  fellow-workers,  and  pos- 
sibly to  his  grave  also,  through  having  broken 
his  word  by  contracting  with  men  on  both  tick- 
ets and  taking  money  from  both.  It  is  only  fair 
to  the  entire  brood  of  practical  politicians  to  say 
that  Mike  lost  caste  terribly  by  this  operation, 
and  that  even  had  he  lived  he  never  again  would 
have  been  able  to  obtain  any  important  com- 
mission in  the  way  of  securing  majorities  for  cer- 
tain men  or  in  compassing  the  defeat  of  others. 

The  politician  must  be  practically  a  bravo — 
as  much  a  bravo  as  the  ruffians  of  mediaeval 
Italy  who  used  to  assassinate  men  for  a  financial 
consideration.  The  character  of  the  candidate 
on  either  ticket,  the  political  principles  involved, 
the  necessities  of  the  town  or  ward  or  district  or 
State,  are  of  no  possible  consequence  to  him  from 
the  first.  His  business  is  to  secure  a  certain  end 
for  a  certain  sum  of  money.  For  this,  any 
other  interest  is  secondary ;  in  fact  it  is  so  insig- 
nificant as  not  to  demand  his  attention  at  all. 
He  is  often  very  sorry  for  the  man  against  whom 
he  contends  and  often — though  always  after  elec- 
tion— expresses  contemptuous  opinions  of  the 
man  whom  he  has  assisted.  But  business  is  busi- 
ness— so  is  practical  politics. 
20 


306  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

Contrary  to  the  usual  supposition,  the  poli- 
tician as  a  rule  does  not  want  votes  for  himself. 
He  can  make  too  much  money  in  other  ways. 
But  when  he  does  go  into  office  it  is  for  the  pur- 
pose of  carrying  into  legislation  or  administration 
the  abominable  principles  or  lack  of  principles 
which  make  him  a  menace  to  civilization  and  to 
public  progress.  If  he  goes  to  Congress  it  is  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  assisting  to  carry  a  measure 
which  is  so  bad  that  the  general  sense  of  the  ma- 
jority cannot  be  trusted  to  carry  it  through ;  or, 
he  goes  to  defeat  a  measure  which  is  admirable 
in  most  respects  and  entirely  in  accordance  with 
the  desires  of  the  people,  and  which  must  be 
fought  by  means  not  entirely  parliamentary  for 
fear  that  it  may  succeed. 

The  people  are  under  the  soothing  impression 
that  the  politician,  like  malaria,  is  never  in  their 
own  locality,  but  always  in  the  next  town  or 
county  or  district  or  State.  This  is  a  great  mis- 
take. The  politician  is  everywhere.  Where  the 
carcass  is,  there  will  the  vultures  be  gathered  to- 
gether, and  the  average  voter  is  so  utterly  care- 
less of  the  mechanism  by  which  ideas  must  be 
put  into  shape  in  constitutions  or  statutes  or 
ordinances,  that  he  thinks  that  his  vote  is  all 
that  is  required  of  him.  He  is  in  the  position 
of  the  householder  with  a  great  deal  of  money 
or  portable  property  in  the  house  who  never 
thinks  to  lock  his  doors.  The  politician  has  a 


THE   POLITICIAN.  307 

distinct  purpose  before  him  of  which  the  voter 
has  little  or  no  knowledge.  He  consequently 
works  systematically  and  to  his  own  advantage, 
while  the  voter  does  nothing  whatever  except  de- 
posit a  ballot,  although  he  knows  that  many  an 
influence,  judiciously  used,  can  change  the  slate 
of  any  party  in  almost  any  political  subdivision 
of  the  country. 

It  would  not  be  fair  to  say  that  all  elections 
are  carried  by  politicians,  but  it  is  entirely  truth- 
ful to  say  that  those  which  are  not  owe  the  fortu- 
nate circumstance  to  the  fact  that  there  was  no 
money  in  sight  for  any  practical  politician.  In 
every  Presidential  election  in  the  United  States 
a  great  number  of  successful  votes  for  electors  are 
in  accordance  with  the  will  of  the  majority  of  the 
people ;  but  there  is  no  man  who  has  been  in 
politics  at  all  in  either  party  and  been  admitted 
to  the  secret  councils  of  his  organization  without 
knowing  that  where  there  was  a  doubt  as  to  a 
majority,  there  always  could  be  found  some  per- 
son who  would  overcome  the  obstacle  for  a  con- 
sideration. In  all  Presidential  elections  some 
large  moneyed  interests  are  at  stake.  They 
may  be  entirely  legitimate  and  depend  for  their 
settlement  upon  matters  of  opinion  upon  which 
there  is  honest  room  for  difference,  but  they  sel- 
dom or  never  are  left  to  honest  differences  of 
opinion.  Those  most  in  interest  and  those  most 
in  doubt  on  these  questions  call  for  the  assistance 


308  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

of  the  professional  politician,  and  they  always 
find  it.  After  every  general  election  a  host  of 
bills  affecting  private  interests,  however  cun- 
ningly they  may  seern  worded  as  matters  of 
general  interest  only,  are  brought  before  Con- 
gress. They  are  brought  there  by  men  whom 
the  professional  politicians  have  placed  in  office. 
They  are  followed  after  in  the  same  manner. 
They  are  forwarded  step  by  step  by  professional 
politicians,  not  by  the  persons  most  in  interest. 
The  lobby  at  Washington  seldom  sees  the  prin- 
cipals in  any  of  these  cases ;  still  less  do  the 
members  of  Congress  see  them.  But  some  one 
shrewd  fellow,  who  has  no  corporate  or  personal 
interest  in  the  enterprises  themselves,  is  working 
for  them  steadily  as  an  attorney  works  for  his 
client,  regardless  of  the  merits  of  the  case — re- 
gardless of  the  rights  and  interests  of  the  peo- 
ple— regardless  of  aitything  whatever  except  the 
money  which  he  has  received  or  expects  to  re- 
ceive for  his  services.  The  will  of  the  people 
has  been  set  at  naught  in  this  way  hundreds  and 
hundreds  of  times  within  the  recollection  of  any 
living  man.  This  is  bad  enough  while  the  only 
purpose  is  to  take  money  from  the  pockets  of  the 
taxpayers  for  the  benefit  of  a  few  individuals. 
But  suppose  the  case  to  be  one  of  international 
importance,  where  the  interests  of  nations  rather 
than  individuals  are  concerned,  does  any  one 
imagine  that  patriotism  would  restrain  the  poli- 


THE   POLITICIAN.  309 

tician  from  working  against  the  interests  of  his 
country?  If  any  one  does,  he  is  greatly  mis- 
taken. Why,  cases  of  foreign  governments 
against  the  United  States — cases  which  have 
no  possible  semblance  of  right  to  defend  them — 
have  not  only  been  accepted,  but  successfully 
forwarded  for  foreign  nations  by  Americans  who 
would  have  felt  indignant  had  they  been  criti- 
cised as  common  politicians.  They  called  them- 
selves attorneys,  lawyers,  counsellors,  and  they 
were  by  general  consent  and  according  to  the 
business  directories  of  their  respective  places  of 
residence.  Did  they  lose  caste  by  it?  Not  at 
all.  Some  of  them  afterward  were  elected  to 
high  offices  solely  on  account  of  the  great  ability 
which  they  displayed  in  opposition  to  their  own 
government's  interests. 

^sop's  old  story  of  the  man  who  was  stung 
by  the  serpent  whom  he  had  nursed  has  aston- 
ished a  great  many  people,  but  parallel  cases 
may  be  found  by  the  thousand  in  the  United 
States  at  any  time,  and  the  serpents  are  always 
professional  politicians. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

RAILROADS. 

THE  railroad  problem  is  one  of  the  most  com- 
plicated and  vital  questions  of  the  day.  Nothing, 
perhaps,  is  so  typical  of  the  ingenuity,  skill  and 
colossal  power  of  our  modern  civilization  as  the 
railroad  train — a  solitary  man  holding  the  lever 
which  controls  this  tremendous  mass  of  wood 
and  metal,  with  its  freight  of  goods  and  passen- 
gers rushing  past  us  at  the  rate  of  a  mile  a 
minute. 

The  growth  of  the  railroad  is  one  of  the  great- 
est marvels  of  this  wonderful  century.  Bngland 
got  her  first  road  from  the  Romans  in  415  A.  D. 
To  move  the  Roman  armies  it  was  necessary  to 
have  the  "  Roman  Way,"  and  the  remains  of 
those  wonderful  works  still  excite  the  adinira^ 
tion  of  all  beholders.  The  dangers  and  delays 
of  roads  in  the  middle  ages,  and  even  in  the 
stage-coaching  days  of  our  fathers,  beset  as  they 
were  with  difficulties  and  terrorized  by  highway- 
men, all  seem .  to  us  to  belong  to  some  remote 
past. 

It  is  a  new  tribute  to  the  genius  of  that  irnpe- 

(310) 


RAILROADS.  311 

rial  people  who  swayed  the  world  in  the  earlier 
ages  of  Christianity  that  even  now,  with  all  our 
facilities  of  modern  travel,  our  people  are  begin- 
ning to  realize  the  necessity  of  roadways  ap- 
proximating those  which  they  constructed.  The 
farmer  often  has  to  haul  the  products  of  his 
fields  many  miles  to  reach  the  railway  station, 
and  the  time  and  the  effort  needed  to  get  his 
wheat  or  corn  over  tortuous  and  defective  road- 
ways entails  a  very  serious  loss.  In  many  parts 
of  the  country  the  roads  in  fact  are  so  impassa- 
ble in  certain  mouths  that  the  farmer  is  unable 
to  transport  his  grain  to  the  railway  at  a  time, 
perhaps,  when  the  markets  are  high,  and  is 
forced  to  hold  it  until  the  reason  opens,  and  to 
dispose  of  it  at  a  much  lower  price.  There  is  a 
general  awakening  of  public  sentiment  to  the 
necessity  for  improvement  in  this  direction,  and 
for  some  years  to  come  there  will  probably  be 
quite  as  much  effort  expended  in  the  bettering 
of  country  roads  as  in  the  further  improvement 
and  extension  of  our  already  colossal  railroad 
system. 

Until  the  opening  of  the  railway  era,  com- 
merce and  travel  followed  the  natural  lines  of 
transportation — the  water-ways.  There  were,  it 
is  true,  a  few  exceptional  instances  like  those  of 
the  ancient  caravan  routes  which  crossed  the 
lines  of  the  great  rivers  and  built  up  inland 
cities,  but  the  operation  of  natural  laws  in  time 


312  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

prevailed,  and  these  cities  fell  into  ruins,  while 
others  sprang  up  along  the  coasts  and  water- 
ways. Even  after  the  introduction  of  railways, 
the  cost  of  transportation  thereby  was  so  heavy 
that  the  water-ways  still  commanded  the  general 
direction  of  commerce,  and  it  is  only  since  the 
wonderful  cheapening  of  railway  rates — due  to 
the  enormous  growth  of  the  traffic  and  the  intro- 
duction of  more  heavily  loaded  cars  and  other 
economies — that  the  iron  way  has  dominated  the 
water-way  and  subverted  what  had  been  one  of 
the  maxims  of  commercial  development  from  the 
earliest  times. 

At  the  present  time,  where  the  question  of 
time  is  not  important,  the  carriage  of  passengers 
and  goods  by  water  is  so  much  cheaper  than 
by  rail  as  to  survive  in  competition.  Where  the 
passenger's  time  is  of  value,  or  perishable  goods 
are  carried,  or  the  merchant  is  in  a  hurry  to  re- 
ceive his  consignment,  the  railway,  following 
virtually  the  shortest  distance  between  the  two 
points — piercing  mountains,  spanning  ravines 
and  crossing  the  rivers,  is,  of  course,  the  neces- 
sary means  of  communication.  Most  of  the  great 
cities  that  have  sprung  up  within  the  memory 
of  people  still  living,  like  those  of  old,  are  reared 
on  the  sea-coasts  or  the  shores  of  great  lakes,  or 
on  the  banks  of  navigable  streams,  the  facilities 
of  transportation  by  water  conspiring  to  create 
these  centres  of  activity  and  industry.  Where 


RAILROADS.  313 

a  number  of  railroad  lines  concentrate,  a  great 
city  may  spring  up — like  Indianapolis  ;  or  where 
great  manufacturing  facilities  exist,  as  in  the 
juxtaposition  of  the  coal,  ore  and  flux — as  at 
Birmingham,  Alabama.  But  these  are  compara- 
tively few  in  number,  and  have  not  such  limits 
of  expansion  as  cities  which  may  be  reached  by 
water.  Aside  from  their  commercial  disadvan- 
tages, the  inland  cities  present  difficult  prob- 
lems, among  the  most  important  being  that  of 
successful  sewage  and  sanitation. 

In  this  country,  indeed,  most  of  the  earlier 
railroads  were  projected  merely  to  connect  navi- 
gable streams  with  one  another,  or  with  the 
coast,  their  founders  evidently  regarding  rail 
transportation  as  an  auxiliary  of  the  natural 
ways,  and  not  as  a  great  rival  which  was  in  a 
very  few  years  to  dominate  them.  In  other  in- 
stances, railways  in  the  early  days  were  simply 
built  along  the  banks  of  the  rivers,  because  the 
people  found  that  when  the  latter  were  frozen  in 
the  winter,  they  needed  some  other  means  of 
transportation.  These  scattered  bits  of  road  here 
and  there  were,  in  after  years,  as  the  possibilities 
of  railroad  development  began  to  dawn  upon  the 
minds  of  far-seeing  men,  united  by  connecting 
links  and  reorganized  into  roads  of  much  greater 
length.  In  fact  some  of  the  most  difficult  feat- 
ures of  the  railroad  problem  of  the  present  day 
grew  out  of  the  failure  of  projectors  of  railroads 


314  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

in  the  early  days  to  grasp  the  meaning  of  the 
system  which  they  were  instituting.  France, 
Germany,  Belgium  and  other  Buropean  cities 
have  had  no  serious  railway  problem.  The 
English  people,  however,  have  passed  through 
very  nearly  the  same  experience  as  ours,  and  we 
are  now  solving  the  same  questions  which  puz- 
zled their  heads  nearly  a  generation  ago. 

The  immunity  of  the  continental  nations  from 
many  difficult  railway  questions  arises  from  the 
fact  that  they  began  building  railroads  after 
England  and  our  own  country  had  undertaken 
them,  and  after  we  had  sufficiently  developed 
their  possibilities  to  show  the  absurdity  of  many 
of  the  ideas  that  prevailed  when  they  were  inau- 
gurated. It  was  supposed  that  the  first  com- 
panies chartered  would  build  a  railway  just  as 
they  would  build  a  highway,  and  that  the  iron 
way  would  be  open  to  competitive  traffic  by  indi- 
viduals or  combinations  of  individuals,  just  as 
the  ordinary  highway  was  open.  In  the  charter 
of  the  first  railway  company  which  built  a  line, 
the  Manchester  and  Liverpool  Railway,  and  in 
fact  in  all  the  charters  which  were  granted  in 
England  prior  to  1829,  an(^  tne  charters  granted 
in  this  country  in  the  same  period,  this  idea  is 
clearly  expressed.  The  Ithaca  and  Owego  Rail- 
way, now  a  portion  of  the  great  New  York  Cen- 
tral trunk  line,  was  chartered  in  1828,  and  one 
section  of  the  charter  contains  this  provision : 


RAILROADS.  315 

"All  persons  paying  the  toll  aforesaid  may,  with 
suitable  and  proper  carriages,  use  and  travel  upon 
the  said  railroad,  subject  to  such  rules  and  regu- 
lations as  the  said  corporators  are  authorized  to 
make  by  the  ninth  section  of  this  act." 

It  is  obvious  that  the  notion  entertained  by  the 
founders  of  this  railway  was  that  they  would  sim- 
ply own  a  turnpike  with  rails  upon  it,  and  would 
derive  their  revenue  from  the  tolls  charged  upon 
the  vehicles  that  should  be  rolled  over  it  by  indi- 
viduals. It  was  not  until  railway  building  had 
proceeded  for  about  a  dozen  years  that  it  became 
evident,  from  the  nature  of  the  power  employed 
and  the  higher  rate  of  speed — unforeseen  until 
then — that  might  be  attained,  that  the  railway 
company  must  monopolize  the  service  over  the 
road  they  built.  This  rendered  necessary  an  en- 
tire revolution  of  the  principles  upon  which  all 
future  charters  should  be  granted.  But  the  fun- 
damental mistake  was  made.  The  continental 
peoples  began  to  build  their  railways  after  this 
fact  was  discovered,  and  therefore  had  the  benefit 
of  their  predecessors'  mistakes,  and  adopted  pre- 
cautions which  have  relieved  them  of  many  awk- 
ward complications. 

Besides  this,  another  mistake  of  ignorance  was 
the  belief  that  railways  would  be  used  exclusively 
for  the  transportation  of  passengers,  and  it  was 
long  after  the  first  rails  had  been  laid  that  the 


316  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

notion  that  "  light  goods  "  might  be  conveyed, 
dawned  upon  their  minds. 

Any  man  who  should  have  told  these  pioneers 
of  the  railway  world  that  the  United  States 
would  possess  in  the  year  1889  a  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand  miles  of  railroad,  enough  to  belt 
the  world  seven.times  at  the  Equator,  would  have 
been  regarded  as  a  lunatic.  The  ownership  of 
this  vast  property  is  represented  by  stocks  and 
bonds  aggregating  $9,000,000,000.  They  receive 
yearly  from  the  public  for  carrying  passengers 
and  freights  the  sum  of  $1,000,000,000  and,  after 
paying  the  expenses  of  their  operation,  including 
the  wages  of  more  than  1,000,000  employes,  they 
have  left  an  available  revenue  of  $415,000,000. 
More  than  one  of  the  larger  companies  has  a 
revenue  greater  than  that  of  the  United  States 
government  was  thirty  years  ago.  To  earn  this 
enormous  sum  the  roads  work  night  and  day, 
seven  days  a  week.  Through  the  darkest  and 
stormiest  winter  midnight,  as  well  as  through  the 
pleasantest  summer  afternoon,  the  locomotive 
fires  are  kept  alight  and  the  wheels  revolve  un- 
ceasingly along  the  rails.  The  work  they  ac- 
complish is  something  startling  in  the  aggregate. 
In  the  year  1887,  the  latest  for  which  the  com- 
plete figures  are  at  hand,  the  railroads  of  the 
country  carried  428,000,000  passengers,  travelling 
10,500,000  miles,  a  distance  equal  to  450  times 
around  the  globe.  The  freight  carried  in  the 


RAILROADS.  317 

same  year  amounted  to  552,000,000  tons,  and  the 
distance  traversed  62,000,000  miles. 

It  is  a  commonplace  to  speak  of  what  the  rail- 
roads have  done  in  the  way  of  opening  up  the 
country  and  bringing  the  blessings  of  civilization 
into  the  wilderness.  In  the  Western  country, 
where  the  people  formerly  wore  homespun  or  the 
coarsest  fabrics  of  Eastern  looms,  the  women  now 
receive  weekly  fashion  plates  still  damp  from  the 
press,  and  every  cross-roads  store  has  in  stock  the 
latest  patterns,  not  only  from  the  great  cities  of 
our  own  land,  but  from  the  centres  of  European 
fashion.  The  postal  system  follows  along  the 
iron  way,  the  metropolitan  newspaper  reaches 
the  most  obscure  hamlet  daily,  and  a  chapter 
might  be  written  upon  the  growth  of  the  railway 
postal  service  alone.  The  telegraph  lines  enter 
new  territory  with  the  railway,  putting  the 
dweller  in  the  remotest  regions  within  reach  of 
instantaneous  communication  with  al\  parts  of 
the  world. 

The  effect  of  the  railroad  in  thus  multiplying 
and  exchanging  not  only  material  products,  but 
distributing  the  news  of  the  day  and  bringing  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Pacific  slope  and  those  of  the 
Atlantic  seaboard  into  daily  intellectual  inter- 
course, and  thus  welding  all  into  one  homogeneous 
people,  is  a  theme  which  has  yet  to  be  fully  dealt 
with  by  the  pen  of  the  historian.  From  Maine 
to  Texas,  go  where  you  will,  you  find  the  people 


318  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

read  the  same  news,  discuss  the  same  questions, 
and  are  subjected  to  the  same  vivifying  influences, 
the  ideas  of  the  farmer  on  the  borders  broadening 
in  even  pace  with  those  of  the  dwellers  in  the 
cities  until  such  a  thing  as  provincialism  is  un- 
known on  this  continent.  Indeed,  foreigners 
who  visit  our  shores,  who  have  a  taste  for  the 
picturesque,  complain  of  this  monotony,  and  be- 
wail the  fact  that  the  American  town  or  hamlet, 
whether  situated  on  the  borders  of  the  great 
northern  lakes  or  on  the  torrid  shores  of  the 
Gulf,  presents  essentially  the  same  exterior  as- 
pect and  identical  social  conditions. 

It  would  be  too  much  to  expect  that  this  great 
railway  system,  with  its  unprecedented  army  of 
employes  and  the  revenues  of  an  empire,  should 
be  an  unadulterated  blessing ;  that  it  should  not 
carry  some  alloy  in  its  composition.  Like  most 
humane  institutions,  even  the  most  beneficent,  it 
has  wrought  mischiefs  as  well  as  brought  great 
benefits.  Until  now  the  needs  of  our  rapidly 
developing  country  were  such  that  communi- 
ties everywhere  were  clamoring  for  roads  which 
would  bring  to  them  what  they  needed  from  the 
outside  world  and  place  within  reach  markets  for 
their  own  products.  Consequently,  every  possi- 
ble inducement  was  offered  for  the  building  of 
railway  lines,  and  without  surrounding  their  con- 
struction with  such  safeguards  as  had  already 
been  found  necessary  in  old  and  thickly  popu- 


RAILROADS.  319 

lated  countries.  The  result  has  been  in  many 
parts  of  the  country  an  over-building  of  lines 
which  has  entailed  subsequent  losses  and  diffi- 
culties and  the  creation  of  abuses  and  complica- 
tions which  together  constitute  what  has  come 
to  be  known  as  "  the  railway  problem."  It  is 
clear  that  what  might  be  broadly  called  the  con- 
structive period  in  our  railway  system  is  ended, 
and  that  we  have  now  fairly  entered  upon  a 
period  of  restriction  and  regulation.  The  people 
have  now  to  learn  to  subdue  and  control  these 
great  Frankensteins  of  their  own  creation. 

As  Mr.  Frederick  Taylor,  President  of  the 
Western  National  Bank  of  New  York,  who  has 
all  his  life  been  a  close  student  of  the  railway 
question,  says :  "  Though  the  railroads  have 
probably  contributed  more  than  all  other  agen- 
cies combined  to  make  the  United  States  what 
they  are,  no  one  will  deny  that  the  incalculable 
benefit  which  we  have  derived  from  their  growth 
and  development  has  not  been,  and  is  not,  wholly 
'  unmixed  of  evil.'  Leaving  out  other  considera- 
tions, it  is  not  unfair  to  say  that  three-quarters 
of  all  the  legislative  corruption  from  which  we 
have  suffered  during  the  past  fifty  years  have 
been  directly  chargeable  to  the  railways ;  and 
that  a  very  large  proportion,  perhaps  nearly  as 
much  as  half,  of  the  litigation  that  has  occupied 
our  courts  during  the  same  period  has  been  di- 
rectly connected  with  railway  matters." 


320  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

The  great  panic  of  1873  was  directly  due  to 
the  over-building  of  railroads.  Following  it 
came  several  years  of  terrible  business  depres- 
sion throughout  the  country,  in  which  time  and 
money  was  spent  in  trying  to  clear  away  the 
wreck.  Hundreds  of  railroad  companies  were 
bankrupted  and  loss  and  suffering  were  entailed 
upon  hundreds  of  thousands  of  persons  who  had 
invested  their  savings  in  these  enterprises.  In 
no  end  of  instances  the  stocks  of  the  companies 
were  wiped  out  of  existence  entirely,  the  roads 
sold  under  foreclosure  and  reorganized.  Again, 
in  1877,  when  the  country  was  just  begin- 
ning to  recover  from  the  shock,  it  was  dis- 
turbed and  depressed  for  a  long  time  by  the 
trouble  between  the  railroad  companies  and  their 
workmen,  which  in  some  cases  culminated  in 
riot  and  bloodshed.  Another  period  of  artifi- 
cially stimulated  railroad  building  reached  its 
culmination  in  the  panic  of  1884,  an^  two  years 
later  widespread  strikes  among  railway  opera- 
tives again  disturbed  the  entire  business  of  the 
country.  During  all  this  period  the  legislatures 
of  the  various  States  and  the  National'  Congress 
were  busy  with  legislation  intended  to  modify  or 
remedy  the  evils  complained  of. 

The  question  presents  such  difficulties  that 
many  students,  including  Mr.  Taylor,  can  find 
a  solution  of  the  question  only  in  the  suggestion 
of  national  control  of  the  railroads  throughout 


RAILROADS.  321 

the  country.  Mr.  Taylor's  idea,  however,  is  that 
they  should  not  be  owned  and  operated  by  the 
nation,  but  that  the  government  should  have  the 
same  sort  of  control  which  it  now  exercises  over 
the  national  banks ;  in  other  words,  that  the 
national  railway  commission  should  supervise 
the  railroads  with  the  same  authority  wrhich  the 
Treasury  Department  exercise  sover  the  national 
banking  system. 

The  unrestricted  building  of  railroads  under 
the  provisions  of  the  general  railroad  acts  passed 
in  most  of  the  States,  following  that  adopted  in 
New  York  in  1850,  has  given  rise  to  destructive 
competition  and  brought  about  some  of  the  knot- 
tiest points  in  the  railroad  problem.  It  was  held 
for  many  years,  and  is-even  now  contended  by  a 
great  many  people,  that  the  building  of  railroads, 
like  any  other  business,  should  be  left  free  to  the 
unrestricted  enterprise  of  individuals  and  associa- 
tions of  individuals.  "If  a  lot  of  fellows  see  fit 
to  put  their  money  into  building  a  railroad  where 
there  is  not  enough  traffic  to  sustain  it,  and  the 
road  goes  into  bankruptcy,  that  is  their  affair,  not 
ours ;  it  is  their  money  that  is  lost."  That  is 
about  how  the  average  citizen  talks  on  this  sub- 
ject. There  could  be  no  greater  mistake. 

In  the  first  place  the  railroads  are  public  high- 
ways, and  as  such  must  be  supervised  by  the 
community.  When  in  ordinary  conversation  in 
this  country  we  speak  of  a  "  road,"  from  Chicago 
21 


322  OUR  COUNTRY'S   FUTURE. 

to  St.  Paul  for  instance,  it  is  always  understood 
that  a  railroad  is  meant.  In  the  older  countries 
the  mention  of  "  roads  "  is  understood  to  refer  to 
a  turnpike.  The  reason  for  the  difference  of 
usage  is  obvious.  In  old  and  settled  countries 
the  highways  were  in  existence  for  centuries  be- 
fore rails  were  laid,  and  the  word  "  road  "  there- 
fore continues  to  hold  its  primary  meaning. 
With  us  it  is  the  railroad  line  which  first  enters 
into  new  territory,  and  it  may  be  years  before  the 
contiguous  region  is  sufficiently  settled  to  render 
an  ordinary  wagon-road  necessary. 

The  vital  fallacy  in  the  popular  argument  that 
"  competition  will  settle  this  question  of  too  many 
roads  "  lies  in  assuming  that  a  railroad  is,  like  an 
individual,  private  enterprise.  If  a  man  starts  a 
hat  shop  in  a  neighborhood  already  well  supplied 
with  hatters,  and  he  is  bankrupted  in  the  strug- 
gle for  business,  that  is  the  end  of  him.  He  has 
lost  his  money  and  the  shop  is  closed  and  the 
equilibrium  of  supply  and  demand  in  hats  is  re- 
stored. But  when  a  railroad  becomes  bankrupted 
it  does  not  go  out  of  existence  in  that  way. 
Where  is  there  an  instance  in  this  country  of  a 
road,  once  built,  having  been  abandoned  or  ob- 
literated ?  No ;  the  bankrupted  road  is  placed 
under  the  protection  of  a  court  and  in  the  hands 
of  a  receiver.  It  conducts  a  fiercer  warfare  than 
ever  against  its  solvent  rivals  ;  for  the  bankrupted 
road  is  relieved  from  the  necessity  of  paying  in- 


RAILROADS. 

terest  on  its  mortgage  or  paying  its  debts,  and 
continues  to  do  business  at  lower  rates  than  ever, 
for  the  receiver  must  keep  it  a-going  pending  its 
reorganization  or  whatever  disposition  is  to  be 
made  of  it. 

The  English  people  long  ago  reached  a  point 
which  we  are  approaching  fast,  in  that  before  a 
railroad  is  built  its  projectors  must  obtain  a 
special  charter,  and  in  order  to  obtain  that  they 
must  prove  that  there  is  a  public  need  of  the  new 
line.  Any  one  \vho  has  read  the  papers  for  the 
past  few  years  will  readily  recall  many  instances 
of  the  destructive  effects  of  building  lines  in  ter- 
ritory already  \vell  supplied  with  transportation 
facilities.  Take  the  West  Shore  road,  which  par- 
alleled the  New  York  Central,  and  not  only  sunk 
the  capital  of  its  own  builders  but  forced  a  decline 
of  fifty  per  cent,  in  the  market  price  of  New  York 
Central,  which  from  an  eight  per  cent,  dividend- 
paying  corporation  practically  ceased  to  earn 
more  than  its  fixed  charges.  The  "  Nickel 
Plate"  road,  paralleling  the  Lake  Shore  from 
Buffalo  to  Toledo,  is  another  glaring  instance  in 
point.  And  still  later  we  have  the  building  of 
an  unnecessary  line  from  Kansas  City  to  Chicago 
by  the  Atchison,  Topeka  and  Santa  Fe  Railroad, 
which  has  resulted  in  the  fall  of  the  stock  of  the 
latter  company  from  about  par  to  less  than  fifty 
cents  on  the  dollar,  with  a  coincident  cessation 
of  dividends. 


324  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

A  host  of  mischiefs  and  evils  have  sprung 
from  the  almost  unrestrained  power  of  railroad 
officials  in  the  matter  of  their  charges.  By 
charging  some  shippers  more  and  others  less  by 
means  of  secret  contracts,  the  officials  opened  to 
themselves  a  field  of  unlimited  profit.  An  awk- 
ward fact,  which  there  is  no  denying,  is  the  large 
fortunes,  in  most  cases  running  into  the  millions, 
possessed  by  men  who  are  or  who  have  been  rail- 
road officials  on  modest  salaries,  and  who  had 
nothing  before  entering  upon  these  positions. 
The  cost  of  transportation  being  such  an  im- 
portant factor  in  the  price  of  commodities,  it  was 
quite  easy  for  the  railway  to  enrich  one  man  and 
beggar  or  drive  out  of  business  another  in  the 
same  trade,  and  this  was  done  according  to  the 
personal  interests  of  the  man  or  men  who  could 
thus  make  rates.  More  than  this,  it  was  not  at 
all  difficult  for  the  railroad  to  impoverish  one  town 
or  city  and  build  up  another  by  discriminating  in 
rates. 

In  fact,  the  railroad  had  the  power  to  say 
whether  a  merchant  should  or  should  not  succeed 
in  business,  whether  a  town  should'  or  should  not 
grow  in  population  and  prosperity.  In  the  Hep- 
burn committee's  investigation  of  the  New  York 
railroads  in  1879  it  wras  shown  that  the  milling 
business  in  certain  towns  of  northern  New  York 
had  been  killed  by  railroads  granting  rates  which 
favored  Minneapolis  and  other  western  points. 


JUDGE  T.  M.  COOLEY 
(Chairman  of  Interstate  Commerce  Committee). 


RAILROADS.  325 

In  one  town  all  the  millers  but  one  were  obliged 
to  go  out  of  business,  and  it  was  elicited  in  the 
investigation  that  this  man  had  a  secret  contract 
with  the  railroad  by  which  they  carried  his  com- 
modity for  much  lower  rates  than  any  of  the 
others.  The  merchants  of  New  York  at  that 
time  complained  that  the  discriminations  of  the 
railroads  against  the  metropolis  were  driving 
away  its  trade  to  Baltimore  and  other  points. 
The  nefarious  contracts  made  by  the  railroads 
with  the  Standard  Oil  Company  were  discovered 
so  recently  as  to  be  still  fresh  in  the  public  mind. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  the  railroads  not  only 
carried  the  Standard's  oil  for  a  fraction  of  that 
charged  a  certain  individual  oil  refiner,  but 
actually  paid  over  to  the  Standard  Oil  Company 
the  overcharges  of  which  they  mulcted  the  un- 
fortunate individual  refiner. 

The  creation  of  railroad  commissions  in  the 
various  States,  and  the  more  recent  establishment 
of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  under 
the  provisions  of  an  act  prohibiting  these  dis- 
criminations, forbidding  the  charging  more  for  a 
longer  than  for  a  shorter  haul,  and  inflicting  a 
severe  penalty  for  making  railroad  pools,  goes  far 
to  remedy  many  of  the  most  glaring  evils  com- 
plained of.  But  laws  after  all  cannot  make  men 
moral,  and,  as  President  Charles  Francis  Adams, 
of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  said  recently,  "  one 
of  the  chief  causes  of  the  railroad  troubles  is  the 


320  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

low  standard  of  commercial  honor  among  railway 
officials."  The  opportunities  for  personal  profit 
possessed  by  dishonest  railroad  officials,  while 
somewhat  diminished  by  the  prohibition  of  dis- 
criminating rates  by  which  the}''  were  enabled  to 
build  up  one  town  in  which  they  had  an  interest, 
or  to  favor  certain  firms  in  which  they  or  their 
friends  were  partners,  have  been  removed ;  but 
the  avenues  of  unlawful  gain  still  open  to  them 
are  almost  innumerable.  As  Herbert  Spencer 
remarked  in  dealing  with  this  same  subject  in 
Kngland  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  "  corpora- 
tions have  no  souls."  A  combination  of  men 
will  stoop  to  acts  which  the  conscience  of  no  one 
of  them  would  sanction  as  an  individual  act. 
So,  too,  a  man  will  deal  with  the  rights  and  prop- 
erty of  a  corporation  as  he  would  never  think  of 
dealing  with  those  of  an  individual. 

Among  the  more  frequent  abuses  of  their  offi- 
cial power,  we  find  railroad  officers  personally 
buying  lands  in  new  territory  or  mining  lands, 
and  then  building  at  the  expense  of  the  corpora- 
tion branch  lines  to  reach  these  properties  and 
enhance  their  value ;  the  establishment  of  manu- 
facturing or  business  enterprises,  in  which  the 
railway  men  are  often  secret  partners,  and  secur- 
ing for  these  enterprises  favorable  terms,  and 
then  contracting  with  the  railroad  to  do  business 
for  less  than  cost ;  the  fast  freight  lines,  which 
ply  over  many  roads,  and  which  have  excep- 


RAILROADS.  327 

tionally  easy  contracts  with  the  corporations 
and  are  in  many  instances  the  individual  enter- 
prises of  railway  officials.  It  was  not  long  since 
shown  that  some  of  these  lines  were  actually 
competing  with  the  railroad  proper  for  freight, 
and  carrying  it  with  express  speed  as  low  as 
the  railroad  could  afford  to  carry  it  in  ordinary 
freight  cars. 

Many  of  the  swindles  and  abuses  in  railroad 
management  owe  their  conception  to  the  scan- 
dalous example  of  Fisk  and  Gould  in  the  Erie 
Railroad.  One  or  two  of  the  little  tricks  played 
by  Gould  and  his  partner  in  that  road,  will  give 
an  idea  of  the  possibilities  of  profit  in  dishonest 
railway  management.  When  Gould  became 
president  and  treasurer  of  the  road  twenty  years 
ago,  the  Erie  had  a  very  favorable  and  long- 
standing lease  of  the  Chemung  and  Canan- 
daigua  roads.  The  rental  was  exceedingly  low, 
having  been  made  at  a  time  when  the  leased 
lines  were  in  financial  trouble.  By  the  terms 
of  the  contract,  if  the  Erie  should  at  any  time 
fail  to  pay  the  rental,  the  lease  was  to  be  thereby 
abrogated.  Under  the  circumstances,  the  secu- 
rities of  these  roads  were  naturally  selling  for  a 
mere  song.  Gould,  through  his  agents,  quietly 
bought  up  these  securities  for  about  their  weight 
in  waste  paper,  thus  becoming  the  sole  owner  of 
the  roads.  Then,  in  his  capacity  as  president 
and  treasurer  of  the  Erie,  he  deliberately  failed 


328  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

to  pay  the  rental,  thus  cutting  oft  the  road  from 
its  lease  and  leaving  him  free  to  dispose  of  it  as 
he  pleased.  He  thereupon  sold  the  roads  to  the 
Northern  Central  Railroad  of  Pennsylvania  for 
three  million  dollars. 

Again,  the  Northern  Railroad  of  New  Jersey 
had  a  stock  capital  of  $159,000  and  $300,000 
of  bonds.  It  had  never  been  able  to  earn  divi- 
dends on  this  small  amount  of  stock.  It  was 
leased  to  the  Brie  on  favorable  terms.  Here  was 
another  example  of  Gould's  genius.  Four  mil- 
lion dollars  in  bonds  were  issued  on  the  prop- 
erty, and  a  million  dollars  of  stock,  which  was 
divided  among  the  conspirators ;  and  then,  to 
give  these  securities  a  market  value,  a  new  lease 
was  made  to  the  Erie  by  which  the  latter  guaran- 
teed thirty-five  per  cent,  of  the  road's  net  earn- 
ings— enough  to  pay  interest  on  the  enormous 
creation  of  new  bonds  and  four  or  five  per  cent, 
on  the  stock. 

One  more  instance :  The  National  Stock  Yard 
Company  was  organized  by  the  conspirators. 
The  Erie  Company  advanced  a  million  dollars, 
taking  bonds  to  that  amount.  A  million  dollars 
of  stock  was  then  issued,  representing  not  one 
cent  of  money  paid,  and  was  divided  among  the 
gang. 

It  is  well  known  that  in  nearly  every  large 
railroad  company  there  is  a  construction  ring 
which  builds  all  extensions,  and  feeders  on  the 


RAILROADS.  329 

most  extravagantly  profitable  terms  granted  by 
the  railroad  company,  the  officials  of  the  railroad 
being  the  chief  parties  in  interest  in  the  ring. 

Aside  from  all  these  rascalities  in  the  actual 
management  of  the  properties,  is  the  deplorable 
fact  that  the  officials  and  directors  speculate  in 
the  shares  of  their  own  concerns,  thus  betraying 
the  interests  of  the  bona  fide  stockholders,  whose 
trustees  they  are.  It  is  more  than  suspected 
that  the  chief  bears  who  have  been  active  in 
depressing  the  securities  of  some  of  the  Western 
roads  during  the  past  winter  were  in  partnership 
with  the  directors  and  other  officers  of  these  cor- 
porations. It  is  easy  to  see  that  those  in  a  posi- 
tion to  know  the  exact  earnings  of  a  company 
and  to  foresee  the  possibilities  in  the  way  of  divi- 
dends have  the  advantage  of  everybody  else  in 
estimating  the  future  market  value  of  the  secu- 
rities. 

While  the  holders  of  railroad  bonds  and  shares, 
however,  display  so  much  apathy  with  reference 
to  the  management  of  their  properties  and  the 
election  of  proper  men  to  administer  them,  they 
deserve  little  sympathy.  It  is  notorious  that  the 
annual  elections  of  most  of  our  railroads  are  the 
merest  pro  forma  affairs.  The  men  who  are  in 
power  send  out  blanks  every  year  asking  for  the 
proxies  of  shareholders,  and  the  latter  forward 
them,  and  thus  enable  these  men  to  continue  in 
power  and  practically  own  the  corporations  they 


330  OUR   COUNTRY'S   FUTURE. 

control.  Where  there  is  a  contest  for  control,  it 
usually  lies,  not  between  the  shareholders,  on 
some  kind  of  principle  in  the  administration  of 
the  property,  but  is  found  to  be  between  two 
speculative  Wall  street  factions,  each  of  whom 
is  anxious  to  secure  the  pickings.  Until  the 
shareholders  of  American  roads  take  an  active 
interest  in  their  properties,  as  do  Bnglish  share- 
holders for  instance,  and  insist  upon  the  publi- 
cation of  the  annual  reports  in  advance  of  the 
meetings  in  order  that  they  may  attend  the 
meetings  and  question  their  officials  upon  all 
dubious  points,  there  can  be  little  hope  of  per- 
manent reform.  In  cases  where  there  is  a  con- 
test, it  is  not  at  all  uncommon  for  an  interested 
faction  to  pay  stockholders  a  small  sum  for  the 
proxies  on  their  stock — a  proceeding  which  has 
been  aptly  compared  to  a  merchant  selling  to  a 
burglar  for  a  dollar  in  cash  the  use  of  the  key 
of  his  safe  every  night.  So  much  for  the  rela- 
tions of  holders  of  shares  and  bonds  to  the  men 
who  manage  the  corporations.  As  to  the  rela- 
tions of  the  railroads  to  the  public,  it  is  clear 
that  the  recent  widespread  discussion  and  the 
salutary  influence  of  the  Interstate  Commission 
must  lead  to  beneficent  results. 

Aside  from  the  great  majority  of  the  people, 
whose  interests  are  indirectly  but  surely  affected 
by  any  juggling  with  railroad  properties  and 
principles,  is  a  great  army  of  men  who  obtain 


RAILROADS.  331 

their  livelihood  and  that  of  their  families  by 
work  on  or  for  railroads.  An  army  ?  Yes ; 
more  men  than  ever  were  seen  in  the  largest 
army  in  the  world.  All  of  them  are  "  effectives," 
too — none  of  them  can  be  found  among  "  the 
sick,  lame  and  lazy."  Chauncey  M.  Depew, 
President  of  the  New  York  Central  road,  says 
truly:  "  With  those  who  are  actually  in  the  ser- 
vice, and  those  who  contribute  by  supplies,  one- 
tenth  of  the  working  force  of  the  United  States 
are  in  the  railroad  service ;  and  that  tenth  in- 
cludes the  most  energetic  men  and  most  intelli- 
gent among  the  workers  of  this  magnificent 
country.  There  are  ten  million  working  men  in 
this  country,  and  six  hundred  thousand  are  di- 
rectly employed  in  the  railway  service.  With 
their  families  they  constitute  a  larger  population 
than  the  largest  of  the  States." 

Mr.  Depew  further  says,  with  equal  truth: 
u  There  is  no  democracy  like  the  railway  system 
of  this  land.  Men  are  not  taken  out  of  rich 
men's  parlors  and  placed  in  positions  of  responsi- 
bility. Men  are  not  taken  because  they  are  sons 
of  such,  and  put  into  paying  places  in  the  rail- 
way systems ;  but  the  superintendents  all  over 
the  country,  the  men  who  officer  and  man  the 
passenger,  the  freight,  and  motive  power  and  ac- 
counting departments,  all  of  them  come  up  from 
the  bottom.  Are  you  going  to  stop  this  thing  ? 
No !  There  are  no  men  being  born  or  to  be  born 


332  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

who  are  to  be  by  inheritance  the  superintendents, 
treasurers,  comptrollers,  auditors,  the  freight  and 
ticket  agents,  the  conductors,  the  yard  masters, 
who  are  to  be  the  master  mechanics,  the  foremen 
of  the  shops,  cf  the  future.  They  are  not  born. 
They  have  got  to  be  made  and  come  from  the 
bottom  up.  And  in  every  one  of  these  depart- 
ments to-day,  in  every  railroad  in  the  United 
States,  in  the  humblest  positions,  earning  the 
smallest  salaries,  are  men,  who  within  the  next 
twenty-five  years,  are  to  fill  all  these  places  by 
promotion.  Don't  tell  me  there  is  no  chance  to 
rise  in  this  country." 

When  this  army  grumbles,  as  once  in  a  while 
it  does,  there  is  good  cause  for  alarm ;  not  that 
they,  like  the  disaffected  of  other  armies,  may  do 
damage  to  life  and  property,  but  because  their 
troubles  are  almost  always  traceable  to  stock-jug- 
gling rascalities,  from  which  the  men  have  no 
hope  of  redress.  Some  of  the  companies  allow 
no  business  operations  to  interfere  with  the  rights 
of  their  employees.  Mr.  Cornelius  Vaiiderbilt  is 
probably  the  most  extensive  owner  of  railway 
stock  in  the  world,  but  he  finds  time  to  see  his 
own  employees  frequently,  and  has  even  built  and 
furnished  a  handsome  club-room  for  them.  He 
has  also  been  active  in  assisting  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  in  establishing  reading 
rooms  at  railway  centres.  President  Charles 
Francis  Adams,  of  the  Union  Pacific  Company, 


CORNELIUS  VANDERBILT. 


RAILROADS.  •         333 

found  time  not  long  ago  to  publish,  in  a  maga- 
zine article,  the  outline  of  a  system  for  retaining 
and  encouraging  competent  employees.  President 
Roberts,  of  the  great  Pennsylvania  road,  is  as 
proud  of  his  men  as  any  general  ever  was  of  his 
army. 

These  railroad  magnates,  and  others  who  might 
be  named,  are  setting  a  good  example,  which  it  is 
to  be  hoped  some  other  officials  will  have  sense 
enough  to  follow.  It  is  bad  enough  for  stock- 
holders to  be  annoyed  and  impoverished  by  stock- 
juggling  operations,  but  when  the  employees  also 
suffer  the  whole  country  suffers  with  them.  It 
is  an  unpardonable  crime  for  any  company,  man- 
aging a  road  which  deserves  to  exist,  to  take  such 
good  care  of  its  managers  that  its  employees  must 
strike  and  even  fight  to  be  sure  of  living  wages. 
Railway  strikes  hurt  every  traveller,  every  ship- 
per, every  receiver  in  the  country.  They  never 
would  begin  if  managers  were  honest.  Stick  a 
pin  here  and  keep  your  eye  on  it. 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

WALL  STREET. 

WALL  STREET  is  a  phrase  which  stands  for 
many  things  with  many  people. 

Pious  people  throughout  the  country  regard  it 
as  a  frightful  gambling  hell  into  which  men  are 
lured  in  order  that  they  may  be  stripped  of  their 
fortunes — as  a  very  sink  of  iniquity.  They  im- 
agine that  speculators  and  brokers  spend  their 
days  in  a  wild  fever  of  excitement  and  their 
nights  in  orgies. 

To  investors  Wall  street  means  the  market 
which  daily  puts  the  immense  stamp  of  its  values 
upon  securities  which  these  investors  have  locked 
up  in  their  tin  boxes  or  in  the  vaults  of  safe  de- 
posit companies,  and  thus  fixes  the  amount  of 
their  fortunes  from  day  to  day. 

To  the  projectors  of  railroads  and  other  enter- 
prises Wall  street  suggests  a  collection  of  banks, 
financial  institutions  and  wealthy  individuals 
who  are  ready  to  advance  capital  in  any  scheme 
which  promises  profitable  returns ;  as  the  place 
to  which  they  turn  to  sell  bonds  or  stocks  for 
the  building  of  new  lines,  or  to  borrow  money 

(334) 


WALL    STREET.  335 

for  the  payment  of  debts  when  they  are  in  diffi- 
culties. 

To  the  vast  horde  of  lambs  in  all  parts  of  the 
country — the  fellows  who  at  one  time,  or  another 
have  taken  a  flyer  in  speculation — Wall  street  is 
a  place  of  bitterness  and  regret.  Numberless 
very  sanguine  men  have  there  been  reduced  from 
prosperity  to  penury.  Many  a  young  clerk  or 
cashier,  lured  by  the  glitter  of  its  tempting  game, 
4ias  taken  his  employer's  money  only  to  see  it 
melted  away,  and  to  see  his  own  character  and 
hopes  wrecked  together. 

Wall  street  is  each  of  these,  and  all  of  these,  ac- 
cording to  the  standpoint  from  which  it  is  viewed. 

Wall  street  proper  is  a  narrow  and  somewhat 
insignificant  street,  save  for  the  tall  buildings 
which  have  been  erected  on  it  within  the  past 
ten  years,  running  from  the  Hast  river  west- 
wardly  across  to  Broadway,  where  it  is  cut  off 
by  Trinity  Church.  The  name  is  derived  from 
the  fact  that  in  the  days  of  the  early  Dutch 
settlement  the  site  of  the  present  street — now  re- 
garded as  the  extreme  lower  end  of  the  island — 
marked  the  northernmost  limit  of  the  village, 
where  a  wall  or  stockade  protected  the  settlers 
from  incursions  of  their  Indian  neighbors  on  the 
north.  When  Wall  street  is  spoken  of,  however, 
the  phrase  includes  several  city  squares  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  Stock  Exchange,  and,  including 
the  latter  institution,  the  banks  and  trust  com- 


336  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

panics,  the  United  States  sub-treasury,  the  offices 
of  the  stock  brokers  and  railroad  magnates  and 
private  brokers — in  short,  all  the  machinery  of 
finance  which  is  there  assembled.  The  Stock 
Exchange,  naturally,  is  the  centre  of  all  this. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Exchange  is  not  on  Wall 
street  at  all  except  for  a  narrow  hallway  leading 
to  that  street.  It  faces  on  Broad  street  and  ex- 
tends through  from  that  to  New  street,  in  the 
rear. 

There  are  eleven  hundred  seats  or  memberships 
of  the  Stock  Exchange.  These,  ten  years  ago, 
sold  as  low  as  $5,000  each,  have  since  that  time 
sold  at  $35,000,  and  are  now  about  $20,000.  Al- 
though nothing  is  more  common  than  to  hear  a 
broker  denounce  trades-unions,  the  New  York 
Stock  Exchange  is  the  most  arrogant  and  exclu- 
sive trade-union  in  the  world.  It  has  always  de- 
clined to  become  incorporated,  in  the  fear  that 
this  would  bring  it  within  closer  reach  of  the  law- 
making  power.  The  Exchange  is  simply  an 
u  association  of  gentlemen  "  who  meet  every  day 
from  ten  in  the  morning  until  three  in  the  after- 
noon for  the  purpose  of  facilitating  transactions 
among  its  members.  The  visitor  to  the  gallery 
looks  down  upon  the  floor  of  a  great  hall  about 
150  feet  square  with  a  ceiling  nearly  80  feet 
high,  there  being  no  floors  intervening  between 
.the  street  level  and  the  roof.  Upright  posts  here 
and  there  bear  the  names  of  certain  'railroads, 


WALL    STREET.  337 

and  those  who  desire  to  trade  in  the  securities  of 
these  roads  will  always  repair  to  the  designated 
posts.  Abont  each  of  these  posts  are  set  a  few 
chairs  for  the  casual  repose  of  the  weary  brokers. 
An  Englishman  who  visited  the  gallery  recently, 
looked  on  these  with  some  surprise,  remarking : 
"  Dear  me  !  And  these  are  the  celebrated  seats 
of  the  Stock  Exchange  for  which  I  hear  as  high 
as  $20,000  is  paid.  Tell  me,  is  it  true  that  those 
beggarly  cane  chairs  are  put  up  at  auction  every 
year  and  bring  such  a  surprising  sum  as  that  ?  " 

But  return  to  the  trade-union  aspect  of  the 
exchange.  Its  members  are  bound  under  the 
severest  penalties  not  to  work  for  less  than  a 
stated  wage  fixed  by  the  governors  of  the  ex- 
change. No  outsider  is  permitted  under  any 
circumstances  to  enter  upon  the  floor  or  do  any 
business  there,  nor  is  one  member  of  the  ex- 
change permitted  to  have  any  interest,  even 
through  a  partner,  in  a  rival  exchange  under 
penalty  of  suspension  or  expulsion. 

To  see  how  business  is  done  on  the  exchange, 
let  us  follow  an  issue  of  the  Smithville  Railroad 
stock  from  the  time  the  certificates  are  issued  by 
the  company  until  they  become  a  part  of  the 
material  of  daily  speculation  on  'change.  The 
Smithville  Railroad  Company  has  issued  these 
shares  for  the  purpose  of  building  an  extension, 
say,  on  their  line.  They  have  sold  them  to  :\ 
syndicate  of  Wall  street  bankers.  A  portion  of 

22 


338  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

the  issue  has  been  sold  on  the  recommendation 
of  these  bankers  to  investors.  It  always  en- 
hances the  valne  of  a  stock  to  have  it  listed  on 
the  New  York  Stock  Exchange,  thereby  pro- 
viding the  holder  of  shares  with  a  permanent 
market.  The  syndicate  therefore  request  the 
company  to  make  formal  application  to  have  the 
shares  admitted  to  dealings  on  the  floor  of  the 
stock  exchange.  A  formal  application  is  written 
out  by  the  company  stating  the  character  of  the 
property  and  the  number  of  shares  issued.  This 
application  is  passed  upon  by  the  committee  on 
stock  list,  and,  if  no  objection  is  found,  favorable 
action  is  recommended  thereon  by  the  governing 
committee,  which  consists  of  forty  members  of 
the  exchange  and  a  portion  of  which  is  elected 
every  year.  The  exchange  does  not  in  any  way 
pretend  to  investigate  the  actual  value  of  the 
securities  it  lists,  but  merely  to  see  that  the  cer- 
tificates, whether  of  bonds  or  shares,  are  prop- 
erly engraved  so  as  to  be  difficult  of  counterfeit- 
ing ;  that  they  are  regularly  and  legally  issued 
by  the  corporation  upon  property  in  actual  ex- 
istence and  operation ;  and  that  the  corporation 
is  in  a  general  way  of  good  standing.  As  to 
intrinsic  values,  purchasers  must  see  to  that 
themselves.  However,  as  the  admission  of  a 
security  to  the  exchange  does,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
public,  give  it  a  certain  stamp  of  merit,  the  com- 
mittee as  a  matter  of  fact  go  somewhat  further 


WALL    STREET.  339 

in  spirit  than  the  letter  of  the  law  above  out- 
lined would  indicate. 

Having  received  the  approval  of  the  governing 
committee,  any  member  of  the  exchange  is  now 
at  liberty  to  offer  these  shares  for  sale  upon  the 
floor  of  the  exchange  or  to  bid  for  them.  Usu- 
ally, in  order  to  initiate  trading  in  shares  with 
which  the  street  and  the  public  may  not  be 
acquainted,  the  parties  interested,  through  their 
brokers,  may  buy  and  sell  shares  for  a  few  days 
merely  to  call  attention  to  them  and  to  have  the 
name  of  the  shares  arid  their  price  sent  out  over 
the  stock  tickers.  Every  broker's  office  contains 
one  of  these  telegraph  instruments,  which  is  in 
direct  communication  with  the  exchange  and  over 
which  the  sales  during  business  hours  are  sent 
as  fast  as  collected  by  the  official  reporters  of 
the  exchange  on  the  floor. 

Now,  suppose  that  Mr.  Brown  has  been  told 
that  the  shares  of  the  Smithville  Railroad  are 
cheap  at  the  current  price  of  fifty  cents  on  the 
dollar  of  par  value  and  that  he  had  better  buy 
some.  He  repairs  to  a  broker's  office  and  tells 
the  broker  to  buy  him  one  hundred  shares.  This 
amount,  by  the  way,  is  the  unit  of  all  transac- 
tions upon  'change,  although  one  may  buy  or 
sell  any  number.  Less  than  a  hundred  shares, 
however,  are  usually  spoken  of  as  a  fractional 
lot.  A  broker  goes  to  the  place  on  the  floor 
allotted  for  transactions  in  "Smithville"  and  bids 


340  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

"  fifty  for  a  hundred."  Another  broker  shouts 
"  sold,"  and  the  transaction  is  made.  As  nothing 
is  said  as  to  the  time  when  the  shares  are  to  be 
delivered,  it  is  understood  that  the  transaction  is 
"regular;"  that  is,  that  the  certificate  for  the 
shares  is  to  be  delivered  at  the  office  of  the  buy- 
ing broker  on  the  following  day  before  2.15 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 

As  the  transactions  are  often  made  amidst 
great  excitement,  a  comparison  of  all  transactions 
is  made  after  hours  on  the  day  of  the  sale.  Ac- 
cordingly after  three  o'clock  that  afternoon  Mr. 
Brown's  broker  sends  a  boy  to  the  office  of  the 
broker  from  whom  he  bought  the  stock.  The 
boy  calls  out  to  a  clerk  whose  business  it  is  to 
make  such  comparisons  :  "  Bought  from  you  one 
hundred  Smithville  at  fifty,  regular  way."  The 
clerk  looks  over  his  memoranda  of  the  day,  and 
finding  that  his  employer  has  made  such  a  sale, 
cries  out  "  Correct,"  and  the  boy  proceeds  on  his 
way  to  other  offices  on  the  same  mission.  Mean- 
while a  boy  from  the  second  broker  has  called 
on  Mr.  Brown's  broker  and  verified  the  transac- 
tion in  the  same  way.  Thus  errors  and  mis- 
takes— and  they  are  very  few  considering  the 
way  in  which  the  business  is  conducted — are  dis- 
covered and  rectified  very  quickly.  If  Mr. 
Brown  is  buying  for  investment  and  wishes  to 
carry  the  stock  off  with  him  he  gives  the  broker 
a  check  for  five  thousand  dollars,  plus  the  broker's 


WALL    STREET.  341 

commission  of  one-aighth  of  one  per  cent., 
namely,  twelve  dollars  and  fifty  cents,  and  when 
he  calls  on  the  following  morning  he  is  handed 
the  certificate. 

But  suppose  Mr.  Brown  is  not  prepared  to  pay 
for  the  stock,  but  simply  wants  to  buy  it  "  on  a 
margin,"  as  it  is  called.  He  may  do  this  simply 
to  carry  the  stock  until  some  future  period,  when 
he  expects  to  be  in  funds,  or  he  may  do  this 
merely  with  the  intention  of  selling  the  stock  at 
higher  figures.  In  that  case  he  gives  the  broker 
with  his  order  a  deposit  of  ten  per  cent,  on  the 
par  of  the  stock ;  that  is  to  say,  he  hands  him  a 
thousand  dollars.  Now,  when  the  stock  is  de- 
livered, the  broker  must  pay  for  it  instantly  its 
full  market  price,  five  thousand  dollars,  so  that 
he  pays  out  four  thousand  dollars  of  his  own 
money,  in  addition  to  the  one  thousand  deposited 
by  his  customer,  and  retains  the  certificate  for  his 
client's  account.  That  is  a  small  sum,  and  every 
considerable  broker's  firm  has  a  large  capital. 

But  if  a  house  has  many  clients  for  whom 
it  is  buying  a  large  amount  of  stocks  every  day, 
it  is  clear  that  it  would  need  more  capital  than 
any  firm  possesses  to  pay  for  all  these  securities 
outright.  What  does  the  broker  do?  When 
the  stocks  are  delivered  to  him  he  takes  them  to 
his  bank,  deposits  them  as  collateral  security  and 
borrows  the  necessary  money  on  them.  The 
banks  usually  do  not  lend  within  twenty  dollars 


342  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

per  share  of  the  market  value  of  stocks.  Con- 
sequently on  Mr.  Brown's  one  hundred  shares 
of  Smith ville  the  bank  will  lend  only  three 
thousand  dollars.  This,  with  the  one  thousand 
deposited  by  Mr.  Brown,  leaves  only  one  thou- 
sand dollars  which  the  firm  must  supply  of  its 
own  cash  to  carry  the  stock.  It  is  customary  for 
a  broker  to  draw  checks  to  pay  for  stocks  which 
are  to  be  delivered  to  him  that  afternoon  and 
take  these  to  his  bank  and  have  them  certified  in 
advance,  although  he  has  on  deposit  no  such 
sum  as  they  call  for.  Later  in  the  day,  when 
the  checks  come  in  for  stocks,  which  he  in  turn 
delivers  to  other  brokers,  he  sends  these  checks 
at  once  to  his  bank,  and  the  balance  is  once  more 
on  the  right  side  of  his  account. 

Moreover,  the  stocks  which  he  is  to  receive  are 
sent  to  the  bank  as  collateral.  This  practice  of 
Wall  street  banks  over-certifying  checks  has 
been  the  subject  of  much  criticism,  and  not  long 
ago  Congress  passed  a  bill  absolutely  forbidding 
it.  The  bankers  and  brokers  argued  that  the 
system  had  been  in  vogue  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century  with  phenomenally  few  losses  resulting 
therefrom  and  pleaded  that  they  could  conduct 
their  business  in  no  other  way.  But  the  law  was 
passed  just  the  same,  and  they  at  once  proceeded 
to  evade  it  by  drawing  "  drafts  "  instead  of  checks 
and  having  the  banks  "  accept "  them  instead  of 


WALL    STREET.  343 

certifying.  The  law  has  already  become  a  dead 
letter  and  the  practice  continues  as  of  old. 

Assuming  that  Mr.  Brown  has  been  fortunate 
in  his  choice  of  a  stock  and  that  in  the  course 
of  a  reasonable  time  it  advances  ten  per  cent,  on 
its  par,  or  ten  dollars  per  share,  he  has  a  profit 
of  one  thousand  dollars  in  his  hundred  shares 
of  stock,  from  which  must  be  deducted  the 
broker's  commissions  and  the  interest  on  the 
capital  invested  for  the  time  it  has  been  carried. 
Desiring  to  realize  this  profit,  he  orders  the 
broker  to  sell  his  Sniithville  at  the  advance.  The 
broker  goes  on  'change  and  sells  "  one  hundred, 
Smith ville."  It  must  be  ready  for  delivery  by 
2.15  the  following  afternoon.  On  the  following 
morning  the  broker  goes  to  the  bank  which  holds 
the  stock  in  question  as  collateral  for  his  loan 
and  substitutes  some  other  security  of  equal 
value,  or  else  makes  a  deposit  in  cash,  reducing 
his  loan  by  that  amount,  and  receives  the  certifi- 
cate, which  is  duly  delivered  to  the,  new  pur- 
chaser, and  the  broker,  on  receipt  of  a  check  for 
the  amount,  credits  Mr.  Brown's  account  with 
the  proceeds. 

But  suppose  Mr.  Brown  believes  that  Smith- 
ville  is  going  down,  and  instead  of  buying  it  de- 
cides to  "  go  short  of  it."  What  is  the  pro- 
cedure ?  His  broker  in  that  case  sells  one  hun- 
dred shares  and  obtains  them  for  delivery  by  bor- 
rowing either  from  an  investor  who  has  the  stock 


344  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

or  from  some  broker  who  is  carrying  "long"  stock 
for  a  customer.  Since  Mr.  Brown  or  his  broker 
must  one  day  return  these  shares  to  the  lender, 
he  is  actually  and  technically  short  of  one  hun- 
dred shares  of  that  stock.  When  he  borrows  the 
stock  the  broker  hands  the  lender  a  check  for  its 
full  market  value.  Should  the  price  of  the  stock 
advance  in  the  market  after  that,  the  lender  is  at 
liberty  to  call  upon  him  from  time  to  time  for 
additional  money  sufficient,  with  his  original  pay- 
ment, to  make  up  the  full,  current  value  of  the 
shares.  Assuming  that  Mr.  Brown's  speculation 
is  successful  in  this  case,  when  the  stock  has 
fallen  say  ten  dollars  a  share,  his  broker  then 
buys  one  hundred  shares,  hands  them  over  to  the 
person  from  whom  he  borrowed  originally,  and 
receives  back  the  amount  of  cash  which  .he  has 
advanced.  As  one  share  of  a  given  issue  of 
stock  is  just  as  good  as  another,  the  original 
lender  is  indifferent  as  to  whether  he  receives  the 
identical  certificates  which  he  loaned  or  the  others 
which  are  bought  in  the  market  at  the  reduced 
price  and  tendered  to  him.  Unfortunately,  how- 
ever, the  Mr.  Brown  whom  we  have  taken  to 
typify  the  average  outside  speculator,  loses  money 
more  frequently  than  he  makes  it.  When  he  has 
bought  a  stock  it  goes  down  more  frequently 
than  up,  and  when  he  goes  short  of  a  stock  it  is 
very  likely  to  rise,  and  in  either  case  of  course 
he  loses  monev. 


WALL    STREET.  340 

It  is  an  axiom  among  professional  speculators 
that  trie  mob  is  always  wrong.  Charles  Reade, 
in  his  novel  "  Love  me  Little,  Love  me  Long," 
makes  the  successful  banker  formulate  this 
axiom :  When  the  herd  sells,  buy ;  when  the 
herd  bu3^s,  sell.  The  late  Baron  Rothschild  was 
once  asked  how  it  was  that  his  operations  on  the 
Bourse  were  almost  invariably  successful.  He 
replied :  "  It's  because  I  puys  tear  and  sells 
sheap."  This  remark  is  frequently  quoted  er- 
roneously. The  baron  is  made  to  say  "  I  buy 
cheap  and  I  sell  dear."  What  he  meant  was  that 
he  bought  usually  at  a  time  when  stocks  were 
regarded  by  the  mass  of  people  as  "  dear  " — when 
everybod}'-  was  looking  for  a  still  further  decline 
—and  he  sold  when  they  were  "  cheap;  "  that  is, 
when  after  a  considerable  rise  the  great  mass  of 
people  were  looking  for  a  still  further  advance, 
and  consequently  were  inclined  to  regard  stocks 
at  that  moment  as  cheap. 

That  the  great  mass  of  people  who  dabble  in 
speculation  must  lose  money  is  clear  enough 
from  the  fact  that  the  few  who  are  on  the  inside, 
and  who  are  more  cunning  or  more  unscrupulous 
than  their  neighbors,  amass  great  fortunes. 
When  the  average  speculator  who  stands  watch- 
ing the  stock  ticker  hears  a  point  to  buy  a  given 
stock,  it  is  ten  to  one  that  the  insiders  at  that 
moment  are  prepared  to  sell.  The  good  news, 
whatever  it  may  be,  which  reaches  the  mass  of 


346  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

speculators,  whether  it  be  a  consolidation  of  rail- 
roads or  an  increase  in  the  earnings  of  a  given 
line  or  any  other  favorable  fact  which  would 
naturally  cause  an  appreciation  in  price,  it  is 
safe  to  assume,  must  have  been  known  to  those 
on  the  inside  of  the  company  long  ago,  and  that 
they  have  in  consequence  bought  stock  at  lower 
prices  which  they  are  prepared  to  unload  on  the 
outsiders  as  soon  as  the  good  news  is  permitted 
to  transpire.  The  reverse  of  all  this,  of  course, 
is  true  of  news  calculated  to  cause  a  depreciation 
in  the  market  price  of  a  given  security. 

There  are  1,100  members  of  the  New  York 
Stock  Exchange.  The  membership  of  each  of 
these  represents  an  investment  of  a  good  many 
thousand  dollars.  Each  of  these  brokers  in  a 
time  of  speculative  activity  makes  a  very  hand- 
some income.  The  more  prosperous  members  of 
the  Stock  Exchange  have  handsome  houses  in 
the  city  and  fine  country  seats  and  big  bank  ac- 
counts. Their  wives  wear  rich  dresses  and  dia- 
monds and  in  winter  occupy  boxes  at  the  opera, 
and  in  summer  drive  and  dress  with  the  bravest 
at  Newport  or  travel  in  princely  style  in  Europe. 
In  spite  of  the  enormous  expenditures  necessary 
to  this  style  of  living,  the  successful  Wall  street 
broker  accumulates  a  vast  fortune,  and  when  he 
dies  leaves  millions,  like  the  late  Charles  F. 
Woerishofer,  the  late  Charles  Osborn,  the  late 
D.  P.  Morgan,  or  any  one  of  half  a  dozen  Wall 


WALL    STREET.  347 

street  millionaires  whose  names  will  occur  to 
any  close  reader  of  the  newspapers. 

Well,  our  Mr.  Brown  is  now  launched  on  the 
sea  of  Wall  street  speculation.  Aside  from  the 
ten  thousand  tricks  and  traps  adopted  by  the  pro- 
fessional manipulators  and  speculators  to  deceive 
the.  lambs — and  our  Mr.  Brown,  being  compara- 
tively unsophisticated  and  without  any  means  of 
ascertaining  the  inside  movements  of  Wall  street 
cliques,  is  a  fair  example  of  a  lamb — there  is  al- 
ways the  broker's  commission  of  one-eighth  each 
way  and  the  interest  charged  for  carrying  stocks 
to  count  against  him  in  every  operation  he  makes. 
Just  as  at  a  game  of  poker  the  "  kitty  "  receives 
a  certain  percentage  of  each  game,  no  matter 
who  wins  or  loses,  so  the  broker's  commission  of 
an  eighth  each  way,  or  twenty-five  dollars  on  each 
one  hundred  shares  that  the  speculator  turns, 
must  in  the  long  run  make  the  commission 
broker  a  winner  and  his  customer  a  loser  in  the 
game. 

As  he  loiters  about  his  broker's  office  awaiting 
the  results  of  his  latest  purchase  or  sale,  Mr. 
Brown  is  not  left  without  entertainment.  Be- 
hind the  screen  he  hears  the  ticking  of  telegraph 
instruments.  His  broker,  if  he  does  a  large 
business,  has  private  wires  to  Chicago,  Boston 
and  other  leading  cities  connecting  with  brokers' 
offices  therein,  and  in  each  of  these  are  groups  of 
lambs  whose  orders  are  instantaneously  trans- 


348  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

mitted  to  New  York  and  executed.  In  a  corner 
of  the  office  a  ticker  of  somewhat  different  design 
from  that  which  bears  the  quotations  of  securities 
is  continuously  reeling  out  a  narrow  tape,  and  on 
this  he  reads  the  news  of  the  arrival  and  depart- 
ure of  ocean  steamers,  the  result  of  the  latest 
race  at  Brighton  Beach,  Long  Branch  or  Sara- 
toga, the  latest  traffic  returns  of  leading  rail- 
roads, the  gossip  of  the  street — nearly  every 
item  of  which,  by  the  way,  is  inspired  by  some 
operator  to  create  a  sentiment  which  will  bull  or 
bear  certain  stocks  to  forward  certain  speculative 
interests — the  names  of  buyers  and  sellers  of 
large  amounts  on  the  stock  exchange,  and  a 
thousand  and  one  items  of  news,  fact  and  fiction, 
having  direct  or  remote  bearing  upon  Wall  street 
affairs. 

It  is  scarcely  worth  while  to  pursue  this  theme 
any  further.  Occasionally  one  hears  of  an  "  out- 
sider "  who  has  made  money  in  Wall  street,  just 
as  one  may  chance  to  be  acquainted  with  a  man 
who  has  won  the  capital  prize  in  a  lottery ;  but 
such  instances  are  very  rare.  The  clientele  of  a 
broker  is  almost  constantly  changing.  Go  into 
his  office  to-day  and  make  the  acquaintance  of 
the  men  who  are  striving  to  get  rich  in  a  hurry 
by  speculating  in  stocks.  Enter  the  same  office 
a  year  later  and  you  will  probably  find  not  one 
of  the  original  set  there.  They  have  gone. 
You  may  find  one  running  an  elevator  in  some 


WALL   STREET.  349 

tall  building  down  town  on  a  princely  salary  of 
ten  dollars  a  week,  or  another  acting  as  conductor 
on  a  street  railroad  for  very  little  more ;  those 
who  have  homes  in  the  country  have  long  since 
departed  to  them,  wiser  and  sadder.  One  of  a 
nervous  temperament  and  who  has  had  heavy 
losses  may  be  dead  of  a  broken  heart,  or  possibly 
he  has  been  desperate  enough  to  end  his  life  by 
his  own  hand.  Fortunately  such  tragical  finales 
are  comparatively  rare,  for  the  average  specula- 
tor is  of  a  sanguine  temperament,  and  although 
driven  to  the  last  ditch  to-day,  he  fondly  hopes 
that  fortune's  wheel  may  give  one  more  turn  and 
bring  him  on  top  to-morrow.  There  are  in  Wall 
street  no  end  of  shabbily-dressed,  wretched-look- 
ing fellows,  with  haggard  faces  and  hungry  eyes, 
who  live  heaven  only  knows  how  or  where,  who 
come  and  go  like  ghosts.  Who  are  they  ?  Ask 
some  old  habitue  of  the  street  and  he  will  tell 
you, 

"  That  man  was  once  a  king  of  the  street. 
Hundreds  flattered  him  and  toadied  to  him.  A 
point  from  him  to  buy  or  sell  a  given  stock  was 
regarded  as  almost  equivalent  to  a  fortune.  He 
could  draw  his  check  for  a  million  and  it  would 
be  honored.  Everything  he  touched  turned  to 
gold.  But  at  last  his  luck  changed.  A  property 
in  which  he  had  invested  the  bulk  of  his  fortune 
in  the  hope  of  making  a  grand  coup,  went  to 
smash.  Grown  desperate,  he  plunged  in  the 


350  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

effort  to  retrieve  his  fortunes,  and  before  long  he 
was  almost  penniless.  For  a  time  he  could  bor- 
row money  from  his  former  fair-weather  friends 
and  flatterers  who  fancied  that  by  some  brilliant 
stroke  of  genius  he  might  recoup  and  once  more 
become  a  leader  of  the  street.  As  it  became  evi- 
dent that  he  was  playing  in  hard  luck,  they 
turned  from  him  one  by  one  and  now  he  has 
fallen  so  low  that  he  will  beg  the  loan  of  a  quar- 
ter of  a  dollar  to  pay  his  car  fare  to  his  home  in 
the  suburbs." 

The  arbitrageurs  now  constitute  an  important 
class  in  Wall  street.  Since  so  many  American 
stocks  and  bonds  have  become  listed  upon  the 
London  Stock  Exchange  and  are  held  by  invest- 
ors and  speculators  in  Europe,  there  is  an  oppor- 
tunity for  these  keen-eyed  financiers  to  turn  an 
honest  penny  by  trading  on  the  differences  in 
price  of  securities  here  and  on  the  London  Stock 
Exchange  at  any  given  moment.  They  are 
usually  connected  with  some  foreign  banking- 
house  having  a  branch  in  New  York,  and  very 
many  of  them  are  Hebrews.  Owing  to  the  five 
hours'  difference  in  time  between  London  and 
New  York,  the  Exchange  of  the  former  city  is 
open  some  five  hours  before  that  of  the  latter. 
Suppose  some  important  news  develops  in  New 
York  in  the  evening  which  is  calculated  to  ad- 
vance the  price  of  a  railroad  stock — say,  Union 
Pacific  or  Erie,  which  are  traded  in  both  in  New 


WALL    STREET.  351 

York  and  London.  The  guileless  Mr.  Browns 
of  our  story  hasten  down  to  Wall  street  before 
ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  buy  at  the  very 
moment  of  opening,  supposing  that  they  are  thus 
reaping  the  fullest  possible  benefit  of  the  infor- 
mation. The  stock  opens  perhaps  one  dollar  a 
share  higher  than  it  closed  the  night  before,  and 
they  buy  at  the  advance.  But  the  professional 
arbitrageur,  while  they  were  still  asleep,  has  been 
buying  the  stock  by  cable  message  in  London, 
and  now  sells  it  to  Mr.  Brown  at  the  advance. 
In  like  manner,  if  news  of  a  depressing  charac- 
ter develops,  the  arbitrageur  sells  the  stock  by 
cable  at.  the  higher  price  in  the  London  market 
and  subsequently  buys  it  in  New  York  at  the 
depreciation.  Of  course  it  is  not  every  day  that 
such  developments  occur,  but,  owing  to  causes 
local  to  London  or  New  York,  the  speculative 
temper  constantly  varies  between  the  two,  and  the 
Wall  street  arbitrageur,  being  kept  constantly 
advised  by  cable  of  the  current  prices  of  stocks 
in  London,  is  able,  by  buying  in  one  market  and 
selling  in  the  other,  to  scalp  fractional  profits 
which  in  the  aggregate  offer  him  a  handsome 
livelihood. 

Another  institution  of  Wall  street  is  the 
United  States  sub-treasury,  where  an  enormous 
amount  of  government  money  is  kept  on  hand. 
The  receipts  at  the  port  of  New  York  for  customs 
and  all  other  Federal  moneys  are  daily  deposited 


352  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

here,  and  merchants  or  bankers  who  have  occasion 
to  export  gold  are  enabled  to  obtain  it  there.  The 
stib-treasury  is  a  member  of  the  bank  clearing- 
house, and  consequently  checks  drawn  by  the 
sub-treasurer  for  the  payment  of  moneys  or 
checks  made  upon  him  for  interest  on  govern- 
ment bonds  or  other  government  disbursements 
are  settled  through  that  institution. 

Adjoining  the  sub-treasury  is  the  United 
States  Assay  Office,  where  bullion  may  be  de- 
posited and  a  draft  drawn  for  its  value  given  on 
the  sub-treasurer  after  the  metal  has  been  duly 
assayed  and  its  value  calculated  by  the  officials. 
When  the  balance  of  trade  is  largely  in  our  favor 
and  Europe  is  sending  us  gold  in  settlement, 
whether  in  the  form  of  gold  bars  or  British  sov- 
ereigns or  French  coin,  it  is  all  sent  to  the  Assay 
Office,  put  into  the  smelting-pot,  and  its  ascer- 
tained value  returned  to  the  depositors  in  the 
shape  of  a  draft  on  the  sub-treasurer. 

After  the  bankers  and  the  brokers  and  specu- 
lators and  the  government  institutions,  perhaps 
the  most  important  people  in  Wall  street  are  the 
men  who  sell  privileges  on  stocks,  of  whom  Mr. 
Russell  Sage  is  the  wealthiest  and  most  impor- 
tant. Everybody  has  heard  of  Mr.  Sage  and  the 
twelve  or  fifteen  million  dollars  he  is  supposed  to 
have  accumulated  largely  through  the  sale  of 
"  puts  "  and  "  calls  "  and  "  spreads  "  and  "  strad- 
dles "  on  railroad  stocks.  Everybody  has  heard 


WALL    STREET.  353 

of  his  loss  of  about  four  millions  of  dollars 
through  these  same  privileges  when  the  failure 
of  Fish  &  Ward,  and  the  bankruptcy  of  the 
Marine  Bank  and  the  suspension  of  the  Metro- 
politan Bank,  precipitated  the  panic  of  1884. 

Last,  but  not  least,  among  the  features  of 
Wall  street  are  the  "  bucket-shops,"  wherein  the 
petty  speculator,  whether  he  be  a  silly  adult  or  a 
broker's  clerk  or  office-boy,  may  gamble  in  stocks 
on  a  margin  as  small  as  five  dollars.  The  men 
who  manage  these  institutions  neither  buy  stocks 
nor  sell  them  for  their  clients,  but  practically 
make  a  wager  that  the  petty  speculator  is  wrong 
by  simply  booking  his  bet.  As  they  are  wrong 
nine  times  out  of  ten,  the  bucket-shop  often 
flourishes  for  a  time  and  its  proprietor  pockets 
large  sums  of  money.  But  a  time  comes  when 
the  stock  market  has  a  definite  and  prolonged 
advance.  In  that  case  all  of  its  clients  are  sure 
to  go  long  of  stocks.  To  pay  their  nominal  win- 
nings in  this  event  is  no  part  of  the  bucket-shop 
proprietor's  programme.  When  his  books  show 
this  condition  of  affairs  he  simply  omits  to  open 
his  doors  one  morning  and  the  next  day  the 
newspapers  chronicle  the  failure  of  another 
bucket-shop.  Of  course  his  dupes  have  no 
redress. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

TRUSTS. 
"The  communism  of  combined  wealth  and  capital." 

IT  was  a  very  happy  phrase  which  President 
Cleveland  coined  in  his  last  annual  message  to 
describe  the  inherent  character  of  the  giant  com- 
binations and  trusts  which  have  sprung  up  in 
this  country  in  the  last  few  years.  And  not  in 
this  country  alone,  but  in  all  the  countries  of  the 
Old  World,  the  control  of  leading  industries  has 
passed  into  the  hands  of  these  combinations. 
The  most  important  one  which  has  attracted 
most  wide  attention  in  Bngland  is  the  Salt  Trust, 
which  has  been  made  the  subject  of  parliamen- 
tary inquiry.  The  most  gigantic  of  all  is  the 
proposed  trust,  with  $500,000,000  capital,  to  con- 
trol the  coal  and  iron  products  of  Great  Britain. 
From  present  appearance,  however,  this  will  not 
be  carried  through. 

The  American  people  are  thoroughly  aroused 
to  the  danger  of  these  mammoth  aggregations  of 
power  and  capital,  each  controlled  by  clear- 
headed and  cunning  men.  The  investigations, 

(354) 


TRUSTS.  355 

legislative  and  congressional,  that  have  been  set 
on  foot,  and  the  universal  clamor  in  the  press 
against  them,  seems  to  indicate  clearly  that  the 
American  people  have  hung  out  a  sign  similar 
to  those  which  one  still  sees  occasionally  in 
country  stores — "  No  Trust  Here."  But  the 
trusts  are  here  just  the  same,  and  it  is  becoming 
more  evident  every  day  that  it  will  be  a  very 
difficult  matter  to  get  rid  of  them  by  legislative 
means. 

It  is  only  a  little  more  than  a  year  ago  since 
the  public  awoke  to  the  importance  of  this  sub- 
ject and  began  to  look  into  these  nefarious  con- 
cerns. The  extraordinary  multiplication  of 
trusts  about  that  time  forced  the  matter  upon  the 
attention  of  the  people.  Since  then  State  Legis- 
latures and  both  Houses  of  Congress  have  dis- 
cussed laws  for  their  suppression. 

One  of  the  latest  utterances  of  David  Davis, 
a  statesman  whom  all  corruptionists  feared,  called 
attention  to  the  existing  dangers  in  the  following 
ringing  words : 

"  Great  corporations  and  consolidated  monopo- 
lies are  fast  seizing  the  avenues  of  power  that 
lead  to  the  control  of  the  government.  It  is  an 
open  secret  that  they  rule  States  through  pur- 
chased Legislatures  and  corrupted  courts,  that 
they  are  strong  in  Congress  and  that  they  are 
unscrupulous  in  the  use  of  means  to  conquer 
prejudice  and  acquire  influence.  This  condition 


356  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

of  things  is  truly  alarming,  for  unless  it  be 
changed  quickly  and  thoroughly  free  institutions 
are  doomed  to  be  subverted  by  an  oligarchy  rest- 
ing upon  a  basis  of  money  and  of  corporate 
power." 

Congressman  Anderson,  of  Kansas,  only  the 
other  day  said : 

'The  communism  of  combined  wealth  is  a 
favorite  subject  with  me.  I  recognize  the  home 
thrust  which  President  Cleveland  made  at  the 
head  of  that  commune.  I  mean  Jay  Gould.  He 
is,  in  my  opinion,  the  greatest  communist  in  the 
United  States,  and  I  have  never  failed  to  openly 
express  myself  accordingly.  He  represents  the 
great  body  of  communists  who  seek  to  control 
legislation  and  legislators,  and  who  know  the 
power  of  money  in  shaping  acts  of  Legislatures." 

While  the  word  "  trust "  is  comparatively  new 
in  its  present  sense,  yet  the  principle  involved 
in  them  is  very  old. 

What  is  a  trust  ?  It  is  a  combination  of  men 
for  the  purpose  of  fixing  the  price  of  any  article 
or  of  destroying  competition  and  in  restraint  of 
trade.  It  is  a  joint  stock  company,  each  mem- 
ber of  which  is  a  corporation,  and  each  of  these 
practically  surrenders  its  charter  and  places  the 
full  power  in  the  hands  of  certain  trustees  who 
are  under  no  direct  legal  restraint.  The  object 
of  a  trust  is,  of  course,  to  advance  the  price  of  a 
product.  The  plea  is  that  they  enlarge  their 


TRUSTS.  357 

own  profits  by  greater  economies  in  the  cost  of 
production,  but  this  statement  is  contradicted  by 
experience,  for  the  price  of  an  article  is  raised 
directly  a  trust  is  formed,  as  was  recently  demon- 
strated in  the  case  of  sugar.  No  individual,  nor 
even  a  single  corporation,  can  stand  up  against 
the  vast  aggregate  power  of  capital  of  the  modern 
trust. 

The  first  of  the  present  trusts,  and  the  one 
upon  which  all  others  have  been  modelled,  is  the 
Standard  Oil,  which  was  organized  about  eight 
years  ago.  The  marvellous  success  of  this  con- 
cern in  crushing  out  competition  and  destroying 
all  rivals  and  making  each  and  every  one  of  its 
projectors  a  multi-millionaire  has  been  the  in- 
centive to  the  formation  of  all  the  others.  It 
has  been  spoken  of  as  the  type  of  a  system 
which  has  spread  like  a  disease  through  the 
commercial  system  of  this  country.  Now  there 
is  scarcely  an  important  article  which  is  not  con- 
trolled by  a  trust. 

The  food,  fuel,  light,  heat  and  clothing  of  the 
people  must  to-day  be  bought  at  prices  fixed  by 
these  monopolies.  One  of  the  latest  and  greatest 
of  trusts  is  that  in  the  manufacture  of  sugar. 
The  production  of  even  such  apparently  insig- 
nificant articles  as  tooth-picks  is  controlled  by  a 
trust,  and  the  price  of  peanuts  is  actually  regu- 
lated by  one. 

It  has  been  accepted  as  an  axiom  in  all  ages 


358  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

and  among  all  people  that  a  free,  fair  and  open 
competition  in  the  manufacture  and  distribution 
of  commodities  is  of  prime  importance  to  a  free 
people.     In  England,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  the 
monarch  for  a  consideration  would  grant  to  cer- 
tain persons  the  exclusive  privilege  of  carrying 
on  particular  trades,  giving  them  a  monopoly 
within  a  certain  territory.     This  was  the  origin 
of  the  great  guilds.     These  in  time  became  so 
oppressive  and  odious  to  the  people  that  appeal 
was  made  for  relief.     As  wealth  and  intelligence 
increased,  individuals  outside  of  the  favored  class 
would  be  tempted  to  infringe  upon  their  privi- 
leges, and  in  this  way  the  question  came  up  be- 
fore the  courts.     In    the  course  of  Hdward  the 
Third's  fifty  years'  reign  he  incorporated  no  less 
than  fifty  guilds  in  London.     The  grocers,  the 
mercers,  the  fish-mongers,  the  goldsmiths,  the 
weavers,  the  masons,    the   leather-dressers,  the 
butchers  and  all  the  rest  had  each  a  separate 
association. 

The  monopolies  granted  by  Queen  Elizabeth 
during  her  later  years  were  so  numerous  and  in- 
excusable that  Parliament  protested  against  this 
proceeding  in  1597,  and  received  in  reply  a  mes- 
sage from  the  queen  in  which  she  hoped  that  her 
dutiful  and  loving  subjects  would  not  take  away 
her  prerogatives  of  granting  this  "  which  was  the 
chief  flower  in  her  garden  and  the  principal  head- 
mark  to  her  crown  and  diadem."  The  popular 


TRUSTS.  359 

clamor,  however,  was  so  great  that*  Parliament 
refused  to  leave  the  matter  iu  the  queen's  hands. 
Lord  Bacon  wrote  against   monopolies,   saying 
"  monopolies,  which  are  the  cutting  off  all  trading, 
must  not  be  admitted  under  specious  color  of  the 
public  good."     The  Salt  Trust  of  that  day  had 
raised  the  price  from  sixteen  cents  to  fourteen 
shillings  a  bushel.     One  of  the  speakers  in  Par- 
liament said :  "  I  speak  for  a  town  that  grieves 
and  pines,  for  a  country  that  groaneth  and  lan- 
guishes under  the  burden  of  monstrous  and  un- 
conscionable monopolies  of  starch,  tin,  fish,  oil, 
cloth,  vinegar,  salt,  and  I  know  not  what — aye, 
what  not  ?     The  principallest  commodities  both 
of  my  town  and  country  are  engrossed  into  the 
hands   of  these   blood-suckers  of  the  common- 
wealth."    While   professing   to  be  grateful  for 
having   her  eyes  opened  to   these   abuses,  the 
queen,  however,  withdrew  only  some  of  the  most 
obnoxious,  and  others  were  destroyed  under  sub- 
sequent reigns,  and  the  laws  passed  during  this 
period,  together  with   the   old    Roman   law  on 
which  the  body  of  the  English  law  is  based,  to- 
day constitute  the  mass  of  precedent  which  is 
cited  against  permitting  these   monstrosities  to 
exist,  although  the  chief  and  basic  argument  is 
now,  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Pliny,  that  they  are 
contrary  to  public  policy. 

"  No  business,"  says  the  New  York  Herald, 
"  is  either  honest  or  legitimate  which  limits  the 


ii60  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

production  of  a  necessary  of  life,  and  thereby 
adds  to  the  living  expenses  of  every  poor  family 
in  the  country. 

"  To  do  that  is  a  crime,  from  the  consequences 
of  which  we  all  suffer,  and  if  there  is  any  penalty 
known  to  the  law  it  should  be  meted  out  with  a 
mailed  hand. 

"  We  don't  profess  to  be  over-squeamish  about 
commercial  methods.  We  are  inclined  to  take 
the  world  as  it  is,  and  let  things  go  their  own 
gait,  shrugging  our  shoulders,  perhaps,  but  not 
indulging  in  any  fit  of  scolding  or  fuming  or  fret- 
ting. We  are  not  living  in  Paradise,  and  as 
lineal  descendants  of  the  man  and  woman  who 
began  life  with  petit  larceny  and  were  '  snaked  ' 
out  of  house  and  home,  we  rather  expect  to  see 
a  great  many  queer  doings. 

"  Still,  when  a  dozen  powerful  corporations 
combine  for  the  sole  purpose  of  adding  to  their 
millions  by  making  it  harder  for  the  wage-earner 
to  live — that  is  pure,  unmitigated  robbery.  It  is 
not  honest  business,  but  a  shrewd,  cunning  and 
diabolical  attempt  to  swindle  helpless  people  out 
of  their  rights  and  their  comforts. 

"  Talk  about  communism,  socialism  and  an- 
archism! Why,  you  are  breeding  these  evils, 
suckling  them,  feeding  them,  and  giving  them 
new  strength  every  day. 

"  The  '  dangerous  elements,'  as  they  are  called, 
are  not  to  be  found  in  the  Bowery,  Five  Points, 


TRUSTS.  361 

and  the  slums  of  the  city.  Not  a  bit  of  it.  The 
sooner  you  get  over  that  nonsense  the  better. 
They  are  to  be  found  at  the  other  end  of  society, 
and  don't  you  forget  it." 

The  story  of  Aladdin  and  his  lamp  is  not  more 
wonderful  than  the  story  of  the  parent  trust,  the 
Standard  Oil  Company.  It  was  in  Cleveland, 
Ohio,  that  John  D.  Rockefeller  and  Samuel 
Andrews,  the  founders  of  the  Standard,  began 
life,  the  former  as  book-keeper  for  a  small  produce 
commission  house  on  a  salary  of  fifteen  dollars  a 
week,  and  the  latter  as  a  porter  in  a  small  store 
in  the  same  city.  When  Rockefeller  was  thirty- 
six  years  old  he  and  Andrews  became  partners  in 
a  small  oil  refiner}'-  and  their  combined  capital 
did  not  exceed  five  thousand  dollars.  Then  Wil- 
liam Rockefeller,  the  brother  of  J.  D.,  became  a 
partner,  and  they  started  a  larger  refinery  and 
established  a  warehouse  in  New  York  for  the  sale 
of  their  oil.  Then  an  important  event  occurred. 
A  wealthy  whiskey  distiller  advanced  the  concern 
sixty  thousand  dollars  and  put  his  son-in-law, 
John  M.  Flagler,  into  the  firm. 

They  were  all  sharp  men,  and  developed  their 
trade  very  rapidly,  being  assisted  by  the  tre- 
mendous increase  of  consumption  of  petroleum 
at  home  and  the  enormous  export  demand  for  it. 
They  were  enabled  to  make  exceedingly  favora- 
ble terms  with  the  railroads  for  the  transporta- 
tion of  their  product,  and  in  this  way  obtained  a 


362  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

great  advantage  over  smaller  firms.  Their  suc- 
cess in  obtaining  these  discriminating  rates  for 
the  carriage  of  their  oil  is  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant elements  in  the  career  which  they 
achieved.  In  1870  the  business  was  incorporated 
as  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  with  a  capital  of 
$  i  ,000,000.  Mr.  Rockefeller  is  generally  credited 
with  the  idea  of  this  combination  to  control  the 
industries  throughout  the  whole  country. 

The  new  corporation  was  powerful  enough  to 
"  see  "  railroad  officials  and  to  make  deals  with 
the  railroad  companies  by  which  they  secured 
larger  advantages  than  ever.  By  means  of  secret 
contracts  with  the  railroads  they  were  able  to  do 
business  in  such  a  way  as  to  drive  individual  pro- 
ducers, and  in  fact  all  competitors,  into  accepting 
whatever  terms  the  Standard  chose  to  make  with 
them.  Oil  lands  were  bought  and  refineries  were 
purchased,  and  others  built  in  the  vicinity  of  New 
York.  Great  warehouses  and  tanks  were  con- 
structed, pipe  lines  were  acquired  and  iron  cars 
for  the  transportation  of  oil  were  made  and  a 
cooper  shop  was  established  to  turn  out  nine  thou- 
sand barrels  a  day.  Keeping  pace  with  this  de- 
velopment, the  capital  stock  was  increased  from 
$1,000,000  to  $90,000,000.  Smaller  concerns 
and  individuals  were  coerced  into  selling  their 
lands  and  refineries  to  the  Standard,  or  were 
driven  out  of  business  by  the  latter,  and  thousands 
of  innocent  persons  who  had  been  caught  in  the 


TRUSTS.  363 

relentless  onward  march  of  the  giant  trust  raised 
their  voices  in  prayer  for  relief  from  the  Legisla- 
tures and  the  courts. 

But  the  brains  and  millions  of  the  Standard 
Oil  met  them  everywhere.  Hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  dollars  were  spent  at  Harrisburg  and 
quite  a  respectable  sum  at  Albany  to  "  influence 
legislation."  Even  the  judiciary  was  not  alto- 
gether free  from  the  suspicion  of  being  influenced 
by  this  terrible  devil-fish.  The  investigation  of 
last  year  for  the  first  time  brought  to  light  the 
nature  of  the  trust  agreement,  and  the  fact  that 
the  few  men  who  constituted  the  executive  board 
of  the  Standard  Oil  Company  controlled  one  hun- 
dred and  forty-eight  millions  of  property  and 
employed  five  thousand  men. 

Mr.  James  F.  Hudson,  author  of  "  The  Rail- 
ways and  the  Republic,"  says  : 

"The  Standard  Oil  Company,  indeed,  embodies 
the  commercial  crimes  of  the  past  decade.  Its 
vast  wealth  has  been  accumulated  in  less  than 
fifteen  years  by  speculative  manipulations,  by 
bribing  legislators,  and  by  distorting  law  to  deny 
to  one  man  the  privileges  given  to  another.  Its 
history  illustrates,  step  by  step,  the  extent  to 
which  the  greed  for  wealth  can  corrupt  commer- 
cial morality,  pervert  law,  and  betray  the  interests 
intrusted  to  its  protection.  The  methods  by 
which  this  company  acquired  and  exercises  its 
power  show  the  baneful  results  of  permitting  the 


364  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

exclusive  control  of  a  great  commercial  interest 
to  be  vested  in  a  monopoly  which  can  oppress 
the  producer  and  consumer  alike. 

"  Throughout  the  course  of  intimidation,  cor- 
ruption, defiance  of  commercial  and  statute  law 
and  contempt  of  public  justice  that  marks  the 
rise  of  the  Standard  monopoly  one  fact  rises 
prominent.  This  monopoly  was  called  into  ex- 
istence and  sustained  in  its  odious  tyranny  by  the 
persistent  and  deliberate  discriminations  of  the 
railways  in  its  favor.  Not  only  the  one  hundred 
million  dollars  which  that  corporation  has  gath- 
ered out  of  the  oil  trade  in  the  past  fifteen  years, 
but  its  dictatorial  power,  its  unscrupulous  crush- 
ing of  opposition,  its  corruption  of  public  servants, 
its  control  of  the  speculative  features  of  the  busi- 
ness, and  the  favoritism  and  sycophancy  which 
are  essential  accompaniments  of  its  absolutism, 
are  the  direct  results  of  the  advantages  which  the 
leading  railways  of  the  country  gave  it  by  carry- 
ing its  freights  on  terms  which  made  competition 
practically  impossible." 

It  is  some  consolation  to  think  that  the  Stand- 
ard Oil  Company  has  passed  the  climax  of  its 
power.  The  passage  of  the  interstate  law  pro- 
hibiting the  making  of  secret  contracts  by  ship- 
pers with  the  railroads  and  forbidding  discrimina- 
tions in  rates  goes  very  far  to  prevent  the  devel- 
opment of  trust  monopolies,  and  makes  it  possible 
for  smaller  concerns  or  individuals  to  engage  in 


TRUSTS.  366 

business.  Still,  the  Standard's  special  facilities 
in  every  department  of  the  industry,  and  the 
contracts  it  has  outstanding  with  distributors  and 
consumers  give  it  great  advantage. 

A  great  deal  of  information  and  misinforma- 
tion about  some  of  the  larger  trusts  was  elicited 
by  the  New  York  State  Senate  last  year  through 
a  committee  appointed  to  investigate  them.  The 
report  of  the  committee  was  very  weak,  but  the 
testimony  it  obtained  threw  considerable  light  on 
the  Sugar  Trust,  the  Milk  Trust,  the  Cotton- 
seed-oil Trust,  the  Elevator  Trust,  the  Oilcloth 
Trust,  and  so  on.  In  its  report  the  Senate  com- 
mittee said : 

"  However  different  the  influences  which  gave 
rise  to  these  combinations  in  each  particular  case 
may  be,  the  main  purpose,  management,  and 
effect  of  all  on  the  public  is  the  same ;  to  wit, 
the  aggregation  of  capital  and  power  of  control- 
ling the  manufacture  and  output  of  various 
necessary  commodities,  the  acquisition  or  destruc- 
tion of  competitive  properties,  all  leading  to  the 
final  and  closing  purpose :  annihilating  competi- 
tion and  enabling  the  industries  represented  in 
the  combination*  to  fix  the  price  at  which  they 
would  purchase  the  raw  material  from  the  pro- 
ducer and  at  which  they  would  sell  the  refined 
product  to  the  consumer.  At  any  rate,  the  pub- 
lic at  each  end  of  the  industry  (the  producer  and 
consumer)  is — and  is  intended  to  be — in  a  certain 


366  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

sense  at  the  mercy  of  the  syndicate  or  combina- 
tion or  trust.  In  recent  years  the  people  have 
seen  the  mines,  the  railroads,  the  telegraphs,  and 
the  telephones  under  corporate  management  yield 
great  returns  to  their  projectors.  Colossal  for- 
tunes, easily  accumulated,  are  always  abhorrent 
to  the  people,  and  even  in  the  hands  of  private 
individuals  are  often  considered  a  menace  to  good 
government. 

"The  people  of  this  State  have  become  alarmed 
at  the  constantly  growing  power  of  the  railroads, 
pipe  lines,  telegraphs,  and  other  corporations, 
and  the  ease  and  boldness  with  which  the  great 
and  powerful  destroys  or  assimilates  its  weaker 
competitive  neighbor,  common  carrier,  or  manu- 
facturer, has  become  the  scandal  of  the  age.  The 
end,  if  not  the  purpose,  of  every  combination  is 
to  destroy  competition,  and  leave  the  people  sub- 
ject to  the  rule  of  the  monopoly. 

"  The  Standard  Oil  and  other  trusts  have 
grown  by  means  like  these,  and  the  little  com- 
binations that  fill  every  avenue  of  trade,  and  in 
little  ways  carry  out  the  same  purposes  on  a 
smaller  scale,  tax  the  people  and  levy  their  re- 
lentless tolls  on  the  pint  of  millf,  the  pound  of 
meat,  and  even  on  the  loaf  of  bread. 

"And  for  these  things  what  is  the  remedy  ? 
We  are  not  unmindful  of  the  fact  that  this  State, 
easily  first  in  point  of  commercial  importance, 
has  always  called  capital  into  its  borders  by  the 


TRUSTS.  367 

wise  and  useful  laws  here  enacted  for  its  protec- 
tion. No  departure  from  this  rule  is  necessary. 
A  wise  people  will  always  find  a  remedy  con- 
sistent with  its  own  prosperity  for  every  great 
vice  of  the  State.  In  this  case  capital  should  be 
subjected  to  the  rule,  of  which  it  has  always 
claimed  to  be  the  strongest  advocate,  that  no  com- 
bination or  conspiracy  should  be  tolerated  in  the 
State  which  would  interfere  directly  or  indirectly 
with  the  exercise  of  completest  competition  in 
every  industry  and  calling." 

At  the  time  this  report  was  made  to  the  New 
York  State  Senate,  a  committee  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  at  Washington  was  investigating 
the  Standard  Oil  and  Sugar  Trust,  and  made  a 
report  calling  the  attention  of  the  House  to  the 
form  of  organization  of  these  two  trusts.  They 
pointed  out  that  there  exists  a  certain  number  of 
corporations  organized  under  the  laws  of  the  dif- 
ferent States  and  subject  to  their  control ;  that 
these  corporations  had  issued  stock  to  various  in- 
dividuals, and  that  these  individual  stockholders 
had  surrendered  their  stock  to  the  trustees  named 
in  the  agreement  creating  the  trust,  and  accepted 
in  lieu  thereof  certificates  issued  by  the  trustees 
named  therein.  The  agreement  provided  that 
the  various  corporations  whose  stock  was  sur- 
rendered to  trustees  should  preserve  their  iden- 
tity and  carry  on  their  business.  In  the  Sugar 
Trust  the  agreement  was  that  the  several 


368  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

corporations  should  maintain  a  separate  organi- 
zation and  each  carry  on  its  own  business.  In  the 
Standard  Oil  Trust  agreement  it  was  provided 
that  all  properties  should  be  transferred  to  and 
invested  in  the  several  companies.  The  duties 
of  the  trustees  were  restricted  to  receiving  divi- 
dends declared  by  the  various  corporations  and 
distribution  of  the  aggregate  to  the  holders  of 
the  trust  certificates  pro  rata,  and  to  holding  and 
voting  upon  the  stock  of  the  corporation.  The 
trustees  of  both  these  companies  specifically  de- 
nied upon  the  witness  stand  that  they  ever  did 
any  other  business  than  to  receive  and  distribute 
these  dividends  and  exercise  the  only  other  func- 
tion given  to  them  by  the  trust  agreement ;  that 
is,  to  hold  the  stock  of  the  various  corporations 
and  exercise  the  right  of  stockholders  in  each 
corporation. 

"  This  form  of  combination,"  said  the  Con- 
gressional committee,  "  was  obviously  devised 
for  the  purpose  of  relieving  the  trust  and  trustees 
from  the  charge  of  any  breach  of  the  conspiracy 
laws  of  the  various  States,  or  of  being  a  combina- 
tion to  regulate  the  control  or  price  of  production 
of  any  commodity.  Hence  they  assert  that  the 
corporations  themselves,  which  control  and  regu- 
late the  price  of  commodities  to  the  extent  of 
production  and  have  tangible  property,  remain 
with  their  organization  intact  and  distinct,  and 
not  in  combination  with  each  other;  that  the 


TRUSTS.  369 

stockholders,  who  owned  only  the  stock,  and  by 
well-settled  legal  rules  had  no  legal  title  in  the 
property  of  the  corporations,  entered  into  the 
agreements  and  sold  their  stock  in  the  corpora- 
tions and  accepted  in  payment  trust  certificates, 
and  that  the  trustees  received  and  held  only  the 
stock  of  corporations  and  have  no  legal  title  to 
any  of  the  property  of  the  corporations,  and 
neither  buy  nor  sell  anything  nor  combine  with 
any  one  to  fix  the  price  or  regulate  the  produc- 
tion of  any  commodity." 

Meanwhile  the  leaders  of  the  Tammany  Hall 
organization  in  New  York,  perceiving  the  deep 
popular  feeling  against  trusts,  was  shrewd 
enough  to  adopt  resolutions  condemning  them, 
and  framed  a  bill  for  their  suppression  and  ad- 
vocated it  before  the  Legislature.  The  latter, 
however,  failed  to  enact  any  law  against  the 
trusts,  and  Tammany  then  appointed  a  commit- 
tee who  appeared  before  the  Attorney-General  of 
the  State  and  argued  that  the  existing  laws  were 
sufficient  for  the  suppression  of  the  obnoxious 
monopolies.  After  arguments  pro  and  con,  At- 
torney-General Tabor  decided  last  summer  that 
there  was  ground  for  action.  As  the  Sugar 
Trust  was  particularly  unpopular,  because  it  had 
raised  the  price  of  that  necessity,  it  was  resolved 
to  begin  by  bringing  action  against  that.  Gen- 
eral Roger  A.  Pry  or  was  appointed  counsel  to  as- 
sist the  Attorney-General  in  prosecuting  the  civil 
21 


370  OUR.  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

suit.  The  North  River  Refining  Company  had 
been  closed  by  the  trust  soon  after  its  formation, 
and  it  was  resolved  to  bring  suit  to  have  its  char- 
ter annulled.  The  decision  on  which  the  Attor- 
ney-General decided  to  bring  this  action  set  forth 
that  the  company  was  a  corporation,  organized 
under  the  laws  of  the  State  for  the  purpose  of 
manufacturing  sugar,  and  that  it  had  violated  the 
provisions  of  the  law  in  several  ways :  first,  that 
it  did  not  carry  on  the  business  for  which  it  was 
incorporated,  but  on  the  contrary  it  had  become  a 
part  of  the  unlawful  trust ;  secondly,  that  the 
concerns  of  thexcompany  were  not  managed  by 
its  own  trustees,  but  by  a  body  of  men  called  the 
Sugar  Refinery  Company — in  other  words  by  the 
trust ;  thirdly,  it  had  violated  the  penal  code  by 
engaging  in  this  unlawful  combination  to  advance 
and  control  the  price  of  sugar;  and  lastly,  it  had 
ceased  to  maintain  its  identity  and  ceased  to  ex- 
ercise the  function  for  which  it  was  incorporated  : 
therefore  its  charter  failed.  Moreover,  the  Attor- 
ney-General was  asked  to  restrain  the  Sugar  Re- 
fineries Company  from  acting  as  a  corporation, 
since  it  had  no  legal  existence.  It  was  alleged 
to  the  Attorney-General  that  the  trust  was  a  cor- 
poration, inasmuch  as  it  had  a  corporate  name, 
and  could  still  contract  obligations  in  such  name, 
made  by-laws,  had  perpetual  succession,  held 
meetings  and  elected  officers  and  held  property, 
issued  negotiable  stock  certificates,  and  generally 


TRUSTS.  ,371 

exercised  a  monopoly  in  the  production  of  sugar, 
and  that  such  monopoly  was  a  public  nuisance. 
The  suit  was  brought  to  trial  in  the  fall.  Able 
lawyers  defended  the  trust,  and  the  case  pro- 
gressed for  several  weeks  before  Justice  Barry, 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York. 

After  a  careful  consideration  of  all  the  facts 
and  evidence,  Judge  Barry,  early  in  January,  ren- 
dered a  decision  which  sent  a  shock  down  the 
spinal  columns  of  all  the  trusts  throughout  the 
United  States — a  decision  which,  if  sustained  on 
appeal,  would  seem  to  ring  the  death-knell  of 
those  oppressive  monopolies.  Judge  Barry  an- 
nounces the  combination  as  a  mischievous  and 
wicked  conspiracy  against  the  people,  declared 
the  charter  of  the  North  River  Company  to  be 
forfeited,  and  pronounced  the  trust  itself  to  be  il- 
legal. Not  only  did  his  decision  annul  the  char- 
ter of  the  North  River  Company,  but  declared 
that  every  corporation  in  the  deal  had  forfeited  its 
separate  charter — that  is  to  say,  every  one  of 
those  companies,  and  including  all  but  five  of  the 
sugar  refineries  of  the  United  States,  and  repre- 
senting a  share  capital  of  $50,000,000,  had  com- 
mitted an  unlawful  act  in  entering  into  a  con- 
spiracy to  advance  the  price  of  this  necessary  of 
life.  The  judge's  opinion  included  an  exhaustive 
review  of  the  case  in  all  its  aspects.  After  ana- 
lyzing the  position  of  the  trust,  he  said : 

'  Thus  we  have  a  series  of  corporations  exist- 


372  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

ing  and  transacting  business  under  the  forms  of 
law  without  real  membership  or  genuinely  quali- 
fied direction — mere  abstract  figments  of  statutory 
creation — without  life  in  the  concrete  or  underly- 
ing association.  Every  share  of  stock  has  been 
practically  surrendered  and  vital  membership  re- 
signed. With  the  transfer  to  the  eleven  trustees 
the  shareholders  cease  to  occupy  the  position  of 
cestuis  que  trustent  with  regard  to  the  directors 
of  the  various  corporations.  In  lieu  thereof  they 
accept  substituted  membership  in  an  unincorpo- 
rated board,  and  an  entirely  new,  independent 
and  exclusive  trust  relation  with  the  trustees  of 
that  board. 

"  Nor  are  the  trustees,  as  transferrees  of  the 
capital  stock  of  the  various  corporations,  in  any 
just  sense  genuine  members  thereof.  They 
have  no  beneficial  interest  therein.  Dividends 
are  not  declarable  thereon,  and,  if  they  were, 
would  not  be  payable  to  them  in  their  own  right 
nor  as  trustees  for  the  shareholders  in  the  partic- 
ular corporations  which  had  earned  the  dividend. 
....  It  is  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  cor- 
porations that  we  have  heard  of  a  double  trust 
in  their  management  and  control — one  set  of 
trustees  elected  formally  to  manage  the  first — 
the  shareholders  in  seventeen  corporations  leav- 
ing their  functions  with  regard  to  their  regular 
directors  to  be  thought  out  and  performed  for 
them  by  what  amounts  to  a  board  of  guardians. 


TRUSTS.  373 

....  Any  combination,  the  tendency  of  which 
is  to  prevent  competition  in  its  broad  and  general 
sense  and  to  control  and  thus  at  will  enhance 
prices  to  the  detriment  of  the  public,  is  a  legal 
monopoly.  And  this  rule  is  applicable  to  every 
monopoly,  whether  the  supply  is  restricted  by 
nature  or  susceptible  of  indefinite  production. 
The  difficulty  of  effecting  the  unlawful  purpose 
may  be  greater  in  one  case  than  in  the  other,  but 
it  is  never  impossible.  ,  Nor  need  it  be  perma- 
nent or  complete.  It  is  enough  that  it  may  be 
even  temporarily  and  partially  successful.  The 
question  in  the  end  is,  Does  it  inevitably  tend  to 
public  injury  ?  .  .  .  . 

"  Fortunately  the  law  is  able  to  protect  itself 
against  abuses  of  the  privileges  which  it  grants. 
And  while  further  legislation,  both  preventive 
and  disciplinary,  may  be  suitable  to  check  and 
punish  exceptional  wrongs,  yet  there  is  existing, 
to  use  the  phrase  of  a  distinguished  English 
judge  in  a  noted  case,  'plain  law  and  plain  sense' 
enough  to  deal  with  corporate  abuses  which,  if 
allowed  to  thrive  and  become  general,  must  in- 
evitably lead  to  the  oppression  of  the  people  and 
ultimately  to  the  subversion  of  their  political 
rights. 

"Again,  the  legal  results  justly  follow— for- 
feiture and  dissolution" 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 
SPECULATION:  PAST,  PRESENT  AND  FUTURE. 

HvERY  man  is  in  some  sense  a  speculator. 
The  farmer  who  throws  good  seed  into  the  soil 
in  the  spring  speculates  upon  the  chances  of  a 
profitable  harvest.  The  dry-goods  merchant  who 
lays  in  a  stock  of  prints  in  the  belief  that  there 
will  be  special  demand  for  them  later  on  to  admit 
of  their  sale  at  higher  figures  is  a  speculator. 
In  short,  everybody  who  produces  commodities 
or  distributes  them  tries  to  foresee  the  require- 
ments of  the  market,  and  is  to  that  extent  a 
speculator.  The  speculative  spirit  is  born  in 
man.  The  prospect  of  reward  prompts  men  to 
exercise  forethought,  which  in  the  long  run  is 
exceedingly  beneficial  to  the  whole  community. 
In  the  hope  of  personal  gain  speculators  study 
natural  laws  and  conditions  and  movements,  and 
so  arrange  for  supplying  a  class  or  a  whole  com- 
munity with  something  which  it  will  need  in  the 
future. 

In  this  way,  too,  sharp  alternations  in  the  price 
of  commodities  are  prevented.  If  drouths  or  other 
unfavorable  conditions  promise  to  very  largely 

(374) 


SPECULATION  :   PAST,    PRESENT,    FUTURE.      375 

curtail  the  wheat  harvest,  for  instance,  in  a  given 
country,  long  before  the  time  for  reaping  arrives 
speculators  have  foreseen  the  result  and  calcu- 
lated the  shortage,  and  the  consequent  demand 
for  wheat  from  other  sources,  and  provided  for  its 
supply.  If  the  matter  were  left  entirely  to  the 
community  directly  involved,  it  might  be  that 
they  would  not  discover  their  true  condition  until 
they  were  upon  the  verge  of  famine,  and  the  con- 
sequent sharp  demand  for  wheat  would  double 
the  price  of  their  bread. 

The  man  who  buys  the  securities  of  a  rail- 
road or  other  corporation  in  the  expectation  that 
it  will  rise  in  value  is  no  more  guilty  of  a  crime 
than  the  farmer  who  decides  that  he  will  change 
his  crops  in  a  given  year  because  he  believes 
there  will  be  a  better  market  for  some  other 
product  than  the  one  he  has  heretofore  culti- 
vated. 

The  word  speculation  is  used  in  a  very  am- 
biguous way.  In  common  talk  it  covers  not  only 
such  legitimate  operations  as  are  here  referred  to, 
but  the  absolute  gambling  in  stocks  or  in  the 
necessaries  of  life,  and  skin  gambling  at  that. 
There  is  a  vast  distinction  between  buying  or 
selling  a  commodity  or  a  product,  expecting  to 
profit  by  the  change  in  value  to  come  from  the 
operation  of  natural  laws,  and  the  methods  of 
professional  speculators  who  proceed  to  force  an 


376  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

artificial  rise  or  fall,  regardless  of  the  effect  upon 
the  community. 

Nobody  blames  a  grocer  if  he  lays  in  a  large 
supply  of  sugar  because  he  thinks  there  will  be 
a  shortage  in  the  next  crop,  and  he  will  thereby 
be  able  to  sell  at  a  greater  profit.  A  man  engaged 
in  a  legitimate  line  of  business,  who  incidentally 
engages  in  speculation  in  the  line  of  his  trade,  is 
manifestly  in  a  different  position  from  the  pro- 
fessional" speculator,  who  neither  produces  any- 
thing nor  distributes  the  products  of  others,  but 
who  simply  stands  in  the  market-place  profiting 
by  the  fluctuations  in  prices.  Yet  even  the  pro- 
fessional speculator,  as  we  have  shown,  has  his 
uses  in  the  economy  of  business. 

It  is  the  buying  and  selling  of  products  "  on  a 
margin,"  as  it  is  called,  which  is  the  basis  of  most 
that  is  objectionable  in  speculation.  This  is  very 
nearly  allied  to  gambling,  if,  indeed,  it  is  not 
gambling  outright.  When  a  man,  for  instance, 
buys  railroad  stocks,  pays  for  them  and  puts 
them  into  his  box,  he  is  to  some  extent  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  professional  manipulator  of  values, 
wrho  occasionally  "  shakes  "  out  the  holder  of 
stocks  on  a  margin  by  artificially  marking  down 
the  price.  The  multitude  of  men  gambling  thus 
on  slender  margins  in  Wall  street  constitutes  the 
prey  of  the  professional  manipulator.  It  is  to 
induce  them  to  buy  stocks  at  high  prices  or 
to  force  them  to  sell  at  very  low  ones  that  a  pro- 


SPECULATION  :   PAST,    PRESENT,    FUTURE.       377 

fessional  operator  lays  most  of  his  plots.  It  is 
to  affect  their  opinions  that  most  of  the  lying 
rumors  are  set  afloat.  It  is  to  rob  them  that  the 
ten  thousand  stock-jobbing  tricks  and  devices 
are  invented  and  put  into  operation  in  the  street. 
It  is  mainly  their  dollars  that  go  to  swell  the  ill- 
gotten  fortunes  of  men  like  Jay  Gould. 

When  they  have  fleeced  one  flock  of  lambs,  as 
the  stupid  gamblers  upon  margins  are  called  in 
the  parlance  of  the  street,  these  financial  free- 
booters will  occasionally  devote  their  attention  to 
making  a  coup  in  some  of  the  necessaries  of  life. 
The  facilities  afforded  by  the  practice  of  carrying 
wheat,  for  instance,  upon  a  margin  enables  them, 
with  the  aid  of  their  millions,  to  make  for  a  time 
a  corner  in  the  staff  of  life,  and  mark  up  the 
price  of  a  loaf  upon  the  table  of  every  poor  man 
in  the  land. 

Fortunately,  however,  most  of  the  attempts  in 
this  direction  have  proved  disastrous  to  the 
heartless  plotters  themselves.  James  R.  Keene, 
who  came  from  California  to  New  York  fifteen 
years  ago  with  $8,000,000  in  cash,  swelled  that 
large  sum  to  $15, 000,000  in  successful  operations 
in  stocks,  and  bankrupted  himself  in  his  famous 
attempt  to  corner  wheat.  Although  personally 
a  very  popular  man,  and  having  a  reputation 
among  his  friends  of  "  playing  square,"  he  had 
nobody's  sympathy  when  impoverished  in  this 
heartless  game,  and  to-day  he  is  little  better  than 


378  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

a  hanger-on  in  Wall  street,  and  lives  in  retire- 
ment in  a  country  house  on  Long  Island.  "  Old 
Hutch's  "  operation  in  wheat  last  year,  although 
called  a  "  corner,"  seems  to  have  been  made  suc- 
cessful by  the  fact  that  there  really  was  a  shortage 
in  the  supply,  and  he  did  not  press  his  market  too 
far.  Indeed,  that  operation  had  comparatively 
little  effect  upon  the  price  of  actual  wheat,  since 
the  corner  was  confined  to  an  option  for  a  par- 
ticular month. 

The  trade  of  stock-jobbing  as  we  know  it  to- 
day is  just  two  hundred  years  old,  having  begun 
in  England  with  the  advent  of  William  the 
Third,  and  the  establishment  of  myriad  joint 
stock  corporations.  In  1692  was  written  Shad- 
well's  comedy,  "  The  Stock-Jobbers,"  in  which 
the  "  Mouse-Trap  Company "  and  the  "  Flea- 
Killing  Company  "  were  used  to  satirize  some  of 
the  projects  of  the  day.  It  is  an  amusing  coinci- 
dence that  Jay  Gould,  the  giant  Wall  street 
manipulator  of  our  time,  made  his  first  appear- 
ance in  New  York  city  with  a  mouse-trap  under 
his  arm,  which  he  had  invented  and  brought  to 
the  city  for  sale. 

The  opportunities  offered  to  dishonest  men  in 
the  buying  and  selling  of  stocks  appear  to  have 
been  perceived  at  the  very  outset  of  the  business. 
But  a  few  years  after  Shadwell's  time,  Sir  Henry 
Furness,  a  governor  of  the  newly  established 
Bank  of  England,  is  said  to  have  established  a 


SPECULATION  :    PAST,    PRESENT,    FUTURE.      379 

complete  system  of  his  own  for  obtaining  news 
of  the  wars  in  which  England  was  then  engaged, 
for  the  purpose  of  utilizing  the  information  in 
the  stock  market,  and  when  he  had  no  news  it  is 
alleged  that  his  agents  set  afloat  reports  of  battles 
lost  or  won  according  to  the  exigencies  of  his 
position  in  the  market. 

That  public  men  were  as  o*pen  to  the  influences 
of  kings  of  the  market  in  those  days  as  they  are 
now  would  appear  from  the  statement,  apparently 
authenticated,  that  the  Duke  of  Marlborough 
received  a  yearly  salary  of  $30,000  from  Medina, 
the  Jewish  banker,  for  supplying  him  with  secret 
information  as  to  his  plans  and  prospects.  In 
the  beginning  of  the  last  century  the  growth  of 
the  gambling  spirit  had  developed  so  as  to  make 
possible  such  disastrous  projects  as  Law's  Mis- 
sissippi scheme  in  France,  and  the  South  Sea 
bubble  in  England,  by  which  thousands  were 
brought  to  ruin  and  despair.  Among  the  com- 
panies promoted  during  the  prevalence  of  the 
South  Sea  mania  in  England  was  one  "  to  import 
a  number  of  large  jackasses  from  Spain  in 
order  to  propagate  a  larger  kind  of  mule  in 
England." 

But  the  scheme  which  historians  of  the  time 
always  hold  up  as  the  very  acme  of  folly  was 
one  wherein  speculators  were  requested  to  deposit 
ten  dollars  on  account  of  shares  in  a  company, 
the  purpose  of  which  was  to  be  kept  an  absolute 


380  OUR   COUNTRY'S   FUTURE. 

secret.  As  might  be  supposed,  the  ingenious 
advertiser  pocketed  the  mouey  sent  him  and 
decamped.  But  are  people  any  wiser  to-day  ? 
There  has  never  been  a  time  when  there  was  not 
a  market  for  the  shares  of  Mr.  Keeley's  motor 
company,  and  it  is  only  a  few  years  ago  that  Mr. 
Henry  Villard  received  $8,000,000  to  be  used  for 
some  purpose  absolutely  unknown  to  those  who 
subscribed  the  funds.  This  was  the  celebrated 
"  blind  pool,"  and  the  money  was  spent  in  the 
purchase  of  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  shares.  It 
is  true  that  in  this  instance  the  subscribers  knew 
the  man  to  whom  they  were  intrusting  their 
money. 

The  public  funds,  the  shares  of  commercial 
and  manufacturing  companies,  however,  afforded 
a  comparatively  limited  amount  of  material  for 
speculative  manipulation,  and  stock  speculation 
never  reached  its  full  development  until  the  era 
of  railway  building  was  inaugurated  in  the 
earlier  half  of  the  present  century.  These 
enterprises  were  pressed  in  England,  and  a  few 
years  later  here,  with  a  vigor  altogether  unex- 
ampled in  the  history  of  any  other  class  of 
undertakings,  and  the  vast  sum  of  money  ex- 
pended in  their  construction  and  represented  by 
stocks  distributed  among  the  public  was  some- 
thing almost  fabulous. 

It  may  be  remarked  in  passing,  however,  that 
the  gambling  spirit  of  the  people  always  con- 


SPECULATION:  PAST,  PRESENT,  FUTURE.     oSl 

trived  to  find  expression  even  before  the  time  of 
joint  stock  companies,  and  led  to  quite  as  serious 
panic  and  loss  and  consequent  suffering  as  our 
more  modern  crashes.  Everybody  has  read  of 
the  famous  tulip  mania  which  broke  out  in  Hol- 
land in  1634.  For  more  than  a  generation  the 
people  of  that  country  had  been  cultivating  the 
tulip.  It  was  the  "  fad "  of  the  time.  Men 
prided  themselves  more  upon  their  acquaintance 
with  the  names  and  characteristics  of  different 
varieties  of  tulip  than  the  modern  connoisseur 
of  paintings  does  upon  his  knowledge  of  great 
masterpieces  of  art.  Higher  and  higher  prices 
were  paid  for  rare  specimens.  Men  devoted  their 
lives  to  the  propagation  of  the  plants,  and  spent 
years  in  experimenting  so  as  to  artificially  pro- 
duce some  new  tint  or  form  in  the  flower,  and 
the  prices  they  brought  were  quite  as  high  as 
those  paid  now-a-days  by  some  of  our  millionaires 
for  rare  orchids.  Just  as  our  rich  financiers  of 
to-day  have  men  ransacking  the  forests  of  South 
America  for  curious  specimens  of  that  plant  to 
adorn  their  conservatories,  so  the  wealthy  Dutch- 
men had  lynx-eyed  agents  scouring  the  country 
to  find  a  rare  tulip.  Finally  the  whole  country 
went  crazy  on  the  subject.  Professors  abandoned 
their  chairs,  tradesmen  left  their  shops,  and 
merchants  turned  their  backs  on  their  counting- 
rooms  to  engage  in  buying  and  selling  tulips. 
Serious  and  apparently  thoughtful  men  of  the 


382  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

day  predicted  that  Holland  was  going  to  get 
richer  by  the  export  of  tulip  bulbs  than  by  the 
commerce  which  she  had  so  laboriously  built  up. 
Thousands  of  dollars  would  be  paid  for  a  single 
small  bulb,  and  the  plants  passed  from  hand  to 
hand  at  constantly  increasing  prices,  very  much 
as  a  share  in  one  of  the  bubble  companies  sub- 
sequently passed  in  England,  and  for  all  practical 
purposes  it  was  quite  as  valuable.  When  the 
craze  was  over,  the  crash  that  ensued  scattered 
ruin  around  quite  as  serious  and  lasting  as  that 
which  followed  any  of  the  stock  speculative 
panics  which  have  occurred  in  recent  years. 

In  this  country  speculation  was  confined  to 
stock  representing  the  government  debt  until  its 
extinction  in  1835,  when  the  coincident  creation 
of  a  mass  of  railway  securities  gave  a  new  stimu- 
lus to  the  business.  The  rapid  extension  of  the 
system,  opening  up  new  territory  and  developing 
unthought-of  wealth,  gave  ample  scope  to  the 
enterprise  and  speculative  faculty  of  the  people 
and  called  into  existence  "  kings  of  the  street," 
men  fitted  by  temperament,  boldness,  and,  it 
must  be  admitted,  unscrupulousness  too,  to  take 
the  lead  of  their  fellows  in  the  manipulation  of 
the  stock  market.  Daniel  Drew's  celebrated 
coup  in  escaping  from  the  clique  who  had  him 
apparently  cornered  in  Erie  stock  twenty  years 
ago,  is  often  cited  as  an  illustration  of  his  tre- 
mendous shrewdness  and  acuteness,  but  Jacob 


SPECULATION  :    PAST,    PRESENT,    FUTURE.       «'>83 

Little  had  done  precisely  the  same  thing  in  that 
stock,  we  are  told,  in  1834.  He  had  gone  heavily 
short  of  Erie — sold  the  shares  in  the  expectation 
of  buying  them  back  at  a  lower  price  for  deliv- 
ery. His  opponents  on  the  Exchange  had  been 
quietly  buying  up  the  shares  until  they  fancied 
they  had  secured  nearly  all  of  them  and  that  Mr. 
Little  would  consequently  be  unable  to  deliver 
the  shares  which  he  had  agreed  to  sell  them  and 
that  they  could  then  force  him  to  settle  on  their 
own  terms.  But  Little  secured  a  quantity  of 
Erie  bonds  which  were  convertible  into  shares — 
a  fact  which  his  opponents  either  did  not  know 
or  had  overlooked — and  turned  them  into  shares 
which  he  had  proceeded  to  deliver  in  fulfilment 
of  his  contracts. 

After  all,  it  would  seem  that  there  are  com- 
paratively few  new  tricks  evolved  by  the  schem- 
ers of  to-day.  "  It  is  a  complete  system  of 
knavery,"  said  an  English  writer  in  1701, 
"  founded  in  fraud,  born  of  deceit,  and  nourished 
by  trick,  cheat,  wheedle,  forgeries,  falsehoods 
and  all  sorts  of  delusions,  coining  false  news, 
whispering  imaginary  terrors,  and  preying  upon 
those  they  have  elevated  or  depressed." 

It  was  the  war  with  the  South,  however,  with 
its  frightfully  inflated  and  depreciated  currency, 
its  alternations  of  hope  and  fear,  according  as  the 
Federal  armies  were  successful  or  were  defeated, 
that  brought  speculation  in  Wall  street  to  its 


384  PUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

fullest  development.  It  was  the  recklessness  in 
money  matters  and  the  comparative  lawlessness 
that  prevailed  for  a  time  which  made  possible  the 
almost  incredible  and  disgraceful  projects  of  such 
men  as  Drew  and  Jay  Gould,  and  his  partner, 
Jim  Fisk.  It  was  the  premium  on  gold,  caused 
by  the  war,  which  made  possible  the  famous  gold 
conspiracy  of  the  last-named  two,  by  which  was 
precipitated  the  awful  panic  of  Black  Friday, 
which  drove  men  to  insanity  and  suicide  and 
their  families  to  beggary  and  shame.  The 
career  of  Gould  and  Fisk  in  taking  possession 
of  the  Brie  Railway,  entrenching  themselves  in 
a  white  marble  palace  in  New  York  and  sallying 
out  thence  to  despoil  the  public,  much  as  free- 
booters of  the  middle  ages  would  dash  from  their 
strongholds  upon  unsuspecting  travellers,  has 
been  graphically  described  b}^  Mr.  Charles  Francis 
Adams  in  his  "  Chapters  of  Erie."  He  says : 

"  Pirates  are  commonly  supposed  to  have  been 
battered  and  hanged  out  of  existence  when  the 
Barbary  powers  and  the  buccaneers  of  the  Span- 
ish main  had  been  finally  dealt  with.  Yet  free- 
booters are  not  extinct ;  they  have  only  trans- 
ferred their  operations  to  the  land,  and  conduct 
them  in  more  or  less  accordance  with  the  forms 
of  law ;  until  at  last  so  great  a  proficiency  have 
they  attained  that  the  commerce  of  the  world  is 
more  equally  but  far  more  heavily  taxed  in  their 
behalf  than  would  ever  have  entered  into  their 


SPECULATION  :    PAST,    PRESENT,    FUTURE.       385 

wildest  hopes  while,  outside  the  law,  the}'  simply 
made  all  comers  stand  and  deliver.  Now,  too, 
they  no  longer  live  in  terror  of  the  rope,  skulk- 
ing in  the  hiding-place  of  thieves,  but  flaunt 
themselves  in  the  resorts  of  trade  and  fashion, 
and,  disdaining  such  titles  as  once  satisfied  An- 
cient Pistol  or  Captain  Macheath,  they  are  even 
recognized  as  President  This  or  Colonel  That.  . .  . 
"  No  better  illustration  of  the  fantastic  dis- 
guises, which  the  worst  and  most  familiar  evils 
of  history  assume  as  they  meet  us  in  the  actual 
movements  of  our  own  day,  could  be  afforded 
than  was  seen  in  the  events  attending  what  are 
known  as  the  Erie  wars  of  the  year  1868.  Be- 
ginning in  February  and  lasting  until  December, 
raging  fiercely  in  the  late  winter  and  spring  and 
dying  away  into  a  hollow  truce  at  midsummer, 
only  to  revive  into  new  and  more  vigorous  life  in 
the  autumn,  this  strange  conflict  convulsed  the 
money  market,  occupied  the  courts,  agitated  leg- 
islatures and  perplexed  the  country  throughout 
the  entire  year.  These,  too,  were  but  its  more 
direct  and  immediate  manifestations.  The  re- 
mote political  complications  and  financial  dis- 
turbances occasioned  by  it  would  offer  a  curious 
illustration  of  the  close  intertwining  of  interests 
which  now  extends  throughout  the  civilized 
world.  The  complete  history  of  .these  proceed- 
ings cannot  be  written,  for  the  end  is  not  yet ; 
indeed,  such  a  history  probably  never  will  be 

25 


386  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

written,  and  yet  it  is  still  more  probable  that  the 
events  it  would  record  can  never  be  quite  forgot- 
ten. It  was  something  new  to  see  a  knot  of  ad- 
venturers, men  of  broken  fortune  and  without 
credit,  possess  themselves  of  an  artery  of  com- 
merce more  important  than  was  ever  the  Appian 
Way,  and  make  levies  not  only  upon  it  for  their 
own  emolument,  but  through  it  upon  the  whole 
business  of  a  nation.  Nor  could  it  fail  to  be  seen 
that  this  was  by  no  means  in  itself  an  end,  but 
rather  only  a  beginning." 

Mr.  Adams'  prophecy  has  been  amply  fulfilled. 
Not  only  has  the  success  which  attended  the 
high-handed  rascality  with  which  the  Erie  Rail- 
way was  plundered  incited  no  end  of  equally  un- 
scrupulous, if  less  able,  men  to  swindle  the  peo- 
ple and  corrupt  their  legislators,  but  Gould 
himself,  encouraged  by  his  triumph,  and  aided 
by  the  millions  which  he  obtained,  continued  in 
an  unparalleled  career  of  speculative  trickery  and 
oppression.  Probably  his  example  has  done 
more  to  debauch  American  youth  and  blunt  the 
sense  of  commercial  honor  than  any  other  hun- 
dred influences.  To  the  minds  of  many  people 
his  career  seems  to  disprove  the  maxim  that 
"  Honesty  is  the  best  policy."  It  is  a  mistake, 
however,  to  speak  of  Gould  as  a  stock  speculator, 
or  even  as  a  stock  manipulator.  He  has  from 
time  to  time  been  obliged  to  manipulate  the  stock 
markets  to  accomplish  some  purpose  of  his  own, 


SPECULATION:  PAST,  PRESENT,  FUTURE.     :>S7 

but  it  is  not  as  a  manipulator  of  the  market  that 
his  millions  have  been  accumulated.  And  when 
he  has  gone  into  a  purely  manipulative  campaign, 
those  who  know  him  best  say  that  he  has  quite 
as  often  lost  as  won. 

It  is  as  a  manufacturer  of  stocks  and  bonds 
that  Gould's  millions  have  been  accumulated. 
When  in  control  of  the  Erie  company,  he  and 
Fisk  kept  a  press  at  work  printing  new  stock 
certificates,  and  sat  up  o'  nights  signing  them 
until  he  had  almost  contracted  scrivener's  palsy. 
They  nearly  doubled  the  capital  stock  in  the  first 
year  after  they  got  control  of  the  road.  True, 
when  the  English  shareholders,  with  the  aid  of  a 
corps  of  lawyers  and  most  of  the  ex-generals  of 
the  army,  succeeded  in  dislodging  him  from  the 
Erie  concern,  they  brought  him  into  court,  and, 
in  settlement,  he  made  an  alleged  restitution  of 
some  nine  million  dollars  of  securities.  These, 
however,  were,  for  the  most  part,  of  only  nominal 
value.  The  cash  which  he  had  secured  he  never 
gave  up.  His  next  largest  coup — in  bankrupting 
the  Kansas  Pacific  road,  picking  up  its  stocks 
and  bonds  for  a  song  and  then  saddling  them 
upon  the  Union  Pacific  Company  at  par — was 
quite  in  the  line  of  his  Erie  experience. 

Again,  in  the  Wabash  Company  he  created 
millions  of  new  securities,  which  were  taken  at 
high  prices  not  only  by  investors  in  this  coun- 
try but — such  a  short  memory  has  the  public — 


388  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

in  England  also.  The  subsequent  discovery  of 
the  worthlessness  of  their  shares  and  the  frantic 
denunciations  of  shareholders  and  bondholders 
on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  are  still  ringing  in 
the  air.  His  latest  exploit  has  been  in  Missouri 
Pacific — on  the  shares  of  which,  until  recently, 
dividends  of  seven  per  cent,  were  paid,  and  he 
claimed  that  the  road  was  earning  fourteen  per 
cent.  But  suddenly  it  appears  that  the  road  is 
scarcely  earning  four  per  cent.,  and  the  shares 
go  tumbling  from  away  above  par  down  to  low 
in  the  sixties. 

There  is  scarcely  an  instance,  except  that  of 
the  late  Charles  F.  Woerishofer,  of  a  man  who 
has  retired  from  Wall  street  with  a  vast  fortune 
as  the  result  of  a  purely  speculative  career.  The 
brokers  who  do  a  strictly  commission  business 
and  take  no  risks  get  rich ;  the  fellows  who,  like 
Gould,  buy  some  little  railroad,  load  it  up  with 
new  stocks  and  bonds,  and  proceed  to  work  these 
off  upon  an  unsuspecting  public  by  paying  divi- 
dends which  were  never  earned,  are  apt  to  get 
rich ;  and  so  too  are  the  men  who  project  new 
enterprises  and  promote  them  until  they  have 
sold  out  the  securities ;  but  the  men  who  have 
been  speculators  pure  and  simple,  however  clever 
and  however  unscrupulous  in  the  methods  they 
adopted  to  work  the  market,  have  usually  gone 
broke.  Even  old  uncle  Daniel  Drew,  preter- 
naturally  cunning  as  he  was,  was  beggared  at 


SPECULATION  :    PAST,    PRESENT,    FUTURE.       389 

the  game.  Heury  N.  Smith  a  few  years  ago 
became  bankrupt  and  carrie'd  down  to  ruin  his 
brokers.  Keene's  downfall  has  already  been 
referred  to.  In  short,  one  cannot  recall  a  single 
instance  of  a  boua  fide  speculator  who  has  re- 
tired with  a  million.  Even  Woerishofer  was  a 
very  heavy  loser  in  the  last  years  of  his  life, 
and  but  for  his  sudden  death  might  possibly 
have  been  added  to  the  list  of  derelicts. 

Addison  J.  Cammack,  the  great  "bear  "  of  the 
street,  is  not,  as  the  public  generally  supposes, 
a  stock  operator  simply.  It  is  not  generally 
known — even  in  Wall  street;  but  it  is  a  fact, 
nevertheless — that  Mr.  Camrnack  does,  perhaps, 
the  largest  commission  business  of  any  indi- 
vidual on  'change,  although  he  never  puts  his 
foot  within  the  door  of  the  Stock  Exchange. 
His  membership  in  the  Exchange  entitles  him 
to  have  commissions  executed  by  brokers  for 
one-sixth  of  the  sum  paid  by  an  outsider,  and 
he  often  receives  very  heavy  orders  for  the  pur- 
chase or  sale  of  a  given  stock  from  Gould  or 
other  powerful  men  who  want  to  hide  their  hands, 
and  who  tell  Mr.  Cammack  to  buy  or  sell  so 
many  thousand  shares  of  a  certain  issue.  He 
distributes  the  orders  to  various  brokers,  and, 
should  any  of  them  be  traced  back  to  him,  they 
are  set  down  by  the  street  to  some  speculative 
operation  of  his  own.  As  he  has  a  reputation 
of  being  always  a  bear,  and  of  always  selling 


390  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

stocks  short  for  a  fall,  the  sale  of  a  stock  by  him 
does  not  produce  such  uneasiness  nor  such  a 
depreciation  in  price  as  would  occur  if  it  were 
known  that  the  shares  he  was  selling  were  long 
stock  from  the  strong  box  of  some  big  holder. 

Cammack  is  almost  the  only  Wall  street  man 
left  whose  name  is  familiar  all  over  the  country. 
We  have  named  above  several  of  those  who  have 
gone  broke  within  a  comparatively  few  years,  and 
the  other  members  of  the  group  of  wealthy  and 
powerful  Wall  street  operators  of  a  few  years  ago 
are  dead.  No  new  leaders  have  risen  to  take 
their  places,  and  the  transactions  on  the  New 
York  Stock  Exchange,  therefore,  approach  more 
nearly  to  a  natural  basis  than  ever  before  in  its 
history.  The  tricks  and  traps  of  these  great 
speculators  of  the  past — the  swindles  of  Gould 
and  his  imitators  by  which  so  many  thousands 
have  been  injured  or  ruined — the  dishonesty  of 
railway  directors  who  used  the  information  ob- 
tained in  their  official  positions  to  advance 
speculative  movements  of  their  own  in  the  stock 
market  and  rob  the  unsuspecting  investor  and 
the  outside  speculator — have  either  frightened 
or  disgusted  the  general  public  so  that  it  is  loth 
to  trade  in  stocks,  and  it  looks  as  if  Wall  street 
is  waiting  for  a  new  generation  of  lambs  to  rise 
before  it  will  resume  its  old-time  activity,  if  it 
ever  shall.  The  great  mass  of  the  trading  in 
Wall  street  of  the  past  few  years  has  been  in 


SPECULATION  :   PAST,    PRESENT,    FUTURE.       391 

bonds  rather  than  in  stocks,  and  in  good  truth 
the  supply  of  these  appears  of  itself  to  be  quite 
ample  to  supply  all  the  public  needs. 

The  introduction  upon  the  Stock  Exchange 
within  the  past  few  months  of  the  shares  of 
manufacturing  concerns  like  those  of  electric 
light  companies,  cotton-seed  oil  manufacturing 
concerns,  the  gas  companies,  the  sugar  trust  cer- 
tificates, the  shares  of  the  white  lead  trust  and 
similar  concerns,  seems  to  indicate  that  the  de- 
velopment of  speculative  activity  in  the  future 
will  be  along  these  lines  rather  than  in  securi- 
ties of  railways,  for  our  railway  system  has  now 
entered  upon  a  period  of  reconstruction  and  regu- 
lation which  will  largely  prevent  the  wild  fluctua- 
tions which  afforded  boundless  opportunities  to 
speculators  in  the  past. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

BANKS   AND   BANKING. 

WE  are  told  by  an  old  chronicler  of  the  quaint 
and  curious  that  in  ancient  times  a  number  of 
Hebrews  scattered  in  the  cities  along  the  shores 
of  the  Mediterranean  conducted  a  most  profitable 
banking  business  without  the  use  of  capital,  by 
drawing  one  upon  the  other,  in  a  perfect  circle, 
the  draft  upon  one  being  taken  up  by  the  next 
banker  in  the  series,  and  so  on  ad  infinitum. 

Perhaps  it  will  not  do  to  scrutinize  this  story 
too  closely,  but  there  are  many  instances  of 
almost  as  odd  and  ingenious  devices  in  the  his- 
tory of  banking.  It  was  not  until  within  a  com- 
paratively recent  period  that  banks  began  to 
issue  circulating  notes.  The  early  bankers  were 
for  the  most  part  merely  lenders  of  money,  and 
this  species  of  banker  was  called  into  existence 
very  early  in  the  world's  history.  In  fact,  he 
was  the  natural  result  of  the  invention  of  money. 

"A  simple  invention,"  says  Carlyle,  "it  was 
in  the  Old  World  grazier,  sick  of  lugging  his  ox 
about  the  county  until  he  cotild  get  it  bartered 
for  corn  or  oil,  to  take  a  piece  of  leather  and 

(392) 


BANKS    AND    BANKING.  393 

thereon  scratch  or  stamp  the  mere  figure  of  an 
ox  (peats),  put  it  in  his  pocket  and  call  it  pe- 
cunia,  money.  Yet  hereby  did  barter  grow  sale ; 
the  leather  money  is  now  golden  and  paper,  and 
all  miracles  have  been  out-miracled ;  for  there 
are  Rothschilds  and  English  national  debts ;  and 
whoso  has  sixpence  is  sovereign  to  the  length  of 
sixpence  over  all  men ;  commands  cooks  to  feed 
him,  philosophers  to  teach  him,  kings  to  mount 
guard  over  him — to  the  length  of  sixpence." 

It  has  been  claimed  on  behalf  of  the  bankers' 
craft  that  they  date  back  to  Abraham,  because  it 
is  recorded  that  he  weighed  out  four  hundred 
shekels  of  silver  as  the  purchase-money  for  the 
cave  and  field  of  Macpelah  wherein  to  bury  Sarah. 
But  this  is  rather  far-fetched.  Livy,  however, 
writes  of  the  tables  of  the  money-changers  in 
the  Roman  forum  existing  300  years  before 
Christ,  and  later  Latin  writers  refer  to  deposits, 
checks  and  drafts,  with  all  the  familiarity  of  a 
financier  of  the  present  day,  as  if  they  were  in 
general  use.  In  these  days,  when  the  capitalists 
of  the  world  are  puzzled  to  invest  their  money 
safely  to  yield  them  three  per  cent.,  it  is  refresh- 
ing to  remember  that  the  old  Greek  bankers  or 
money-lenders  exacted  as  much  as  thirty-six  per 
cent,  a  year  from  the  spendthrift  youths  or  em- 
barrassed merchants  of  that  day.  Aristophanes, 
in  one  of  his  comedies,  makes  a  money-lender 
bitterly  bewail  the  fact  that  he  has  only  been 


394  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

able  to  get  four  per  cent,  on  his  loan.  The 
Greek  bankers  used  the  temples  as  safe-deposit 
vaults  for  the  storage  of  their  treasures,  and 
seem  to  have  taken  the  priests  into  a  sort  of 
partnership.  Something  of  the  same  sort  prob- 
ably prevailed  among  the  Jews,  and  it  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  believe  that  they  were  usurious,  for  the 
Saviour,  when  He  overturned  their  tables  in  the 
temple,  called  them  thieves — "  My  house  shall 
be  called  the  house  of  prayer,  but  ye  have  made 
it  a  den  of  thieves." 

During  succeeding  ages,  however,  the  meth- 
ods of  banking  seem  to  have  been  lost  until  re- 
discovered and  re-established  by  the  Jews.  A 
bank  was  established  at  Venice  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  twelfth  century,  another  at  Genoa  in  1345, 
and  they  came  into  existence  in  several  of  the 
Dutch  cities  early  in  the  seventeenth  century. 
All  of  these  were,  in  a  sense,  state  banks,  lending 
money  to  the  state,  and  exercising  their  func- 
tions under  its  authority  and  protection.  The 
Jews,  and  the  Lombards,  who  had  been  taught  in 
their  schools,  were  almost  the  only  money-lenders 
of  Europe  from  the  twelfth  to  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury. 

The  first  money-lender  in  England  who  at  all 
approaches  our  modern  idea  of  a  banker  was 
William  de  la  Pole,  a  shipping-merchant  of  Hull, 
who  loaned  Edward  the  Third  large  sums  to 
carry  on  his  French  wars,  and  in  return  the  king 


BANKS    AND    BANKING. 

made  over  to  him  the  collection  of  customs  and 
internal  revenues.  He  collected  the  royal  rents 
and  acted  as  paymaster  of  the  army,  and  in  a 
general  way  became  the  royal  banker.  Naturally 
a  title  was  conferred  upon  him. 

The  prefix  of  "Sir"  was  subsequently  given  to 
Dick  Whittington,  of  cat  celebrity,  for  similar  ser- 
vices to  Henry  the  Fourth  and  Henry  the  Fifth. 
The  goldsmiths  in  those  times  acted  as  money- 
lenders and  pawnbrokers.  After  Charles  the  First 
grabbed  about  a  million  dollars,  which  they  had 
deposited  in  the  mint  for  safe-keeping,  the  nobles 
began  to  deposit  their  money  with  the  gold- 
smiths, who  allowed  them  interest  thereon,  and 
from  having  the  custody  of  their  rents  and  their 
income  it  was  a  natural  step  for  them  to  request 
the  goldsmiths  to  collect  the  money.  The  gold- 
smiths gave  written  evidences  of  indebtedness 
for  the  sums  intrusted  to  them,  and  these  were 
often  transmitted  by  the  holders  in  settlement  of 
debt.  When  one  of  these  goldsmiths  speculated 
unfortunately  or  his  business  went  wrong,  his 
depositors  naturally  had  to  suffer. 

Losses  of  this  kind  paved  the  way  for  the 
establishment  of  the  Bank  of  England  in  1694. 
It  was  planned  by  a  Scotchman  named  William 
Patterson,  who,  however,  derived  many  of  his 
ideas  from  the  Bank  of  Amsterdam,  which  was 
then  in  successful  operation.  In  return  for  a 
loan  of  twelve  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling 


396  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

to  the  government  the  lenders,  who  organized 
the  bank,  were  granted  certain  exclusive  priv- 
ileges, and  their  concern  became  the  depository 
of  the  government  money  and  has  remained  such 
ever  since.  It  has  now  the  accounts  of  many 
thousand  private  depositors,  pays  the  interest  on 
the  government  debt,  issues  circulating  notes, 
and  to  a  certain  extent  controls  the  rate  of  in- 
terest on  money  in  England. 

As  to  the  establishment  of  banking,  Congress- 
man Ben  Butterworth,  of  Ohio,  says : 

"  In  the  forces  of  civilization  we  find  the  banker 
in  the  forefront.  It  was  a  banker  that  first  taught 
the  world  the  maxim  of  an  honest  commerce. 
It  was  the  Bank  of  Venice  that  was  the  first  to 
arbitrate  commerce  and  control  the  seas ;  it  was 
a  banker  that  first  taught  a  nation  that  the  pub- 
lic fidelity  was  the  right  basis  of  all  successful 
effort  in  the  business  world.  For  six  hundred 
years  Venice  maintained  unstained  her  honor, 
elevating  the  civilization  of  the  world.  In  course 
of  time  she  was  succeeded  by  Amsterdam  and 
Antwerp,  their  bankers  honoring  every  check 
and  paying  every  piece  of  paper,  teaching  the 
world  that  there  was  a  giant  in  trade  and  com- 
merce capable  of  strangling  a  nation.  The 
bankers  thus  brought  the  world  together,  made 
the  nations  of  the  earth  one  man,  one  common- 
wealth." 

Savings  banks  originated  in  Switzerland,  and 


RANKS    AND    BANKING.  397 

were  instituted  mainly  for  the  benefit  of  the 
poor.  They  were  organized  by  benevolent  per- 
sons, who  received  no  salaries  for  their  services, 
and  no  capital  was  required.  The  purpose  was 
rather  to  induce  working-people  to  save  from 
their  earnings  something  for  a  rainy  day  or  to 
provide  for  their  old  age,  and  consequently  but 
little  effort  at  first  was  made  to  secure  large  earn- 
ings on  the  deposits.  The  first  we  can  learn  of 
in  Switzerland  was  established  in  1805.  A  dozen 
years  later  they  were  organized  in  Scotland  and 
England,  and  shortly  after  in  France.  In  this 
country  the  first  was  organized  in  Boston  in 
1816,  and  within  a  few  years  they  were  to  be 
found  in  New  York,  Baltimore,  and  Philadelphia, 
and  their  success  in  these  centres  soon  led  to 
their  establishment  in  all  the  large  towns 
throughout  the  country.  They  were  chartered 
by  the  States,  and  were  held  by  the  State 
authorities  to  account  for  their  honest  and  pru- 
dent management.  Naturally  the  ideas  of  legis- 
lators in  the  various  States  differed  somewhat  as 
to  the  nature  and  functions  of  the  banks,  and 
hence  there  was  a  difference  in  their  organization 
at  the  beginning,  which  subsequent  legislation 
has  made  still  more  marked.  There  are  now  in 
existence  three  different  classes  of  savings  banks : 
the  first  is  of  the  primitive  type,  instituted  with- 
out capital ;  the  second  are  joint-stock  concerns, 
and  the  third  are  of  the  trust-company  type,  and 


398  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

transact  a  banking  business  aside  from  the  mere 
receipt  and  investment  of  deposits. 

As  population  increased  and  the  banks  multi- 
plied in  number,  and  the  desirability  of  estab- 
lishing these  banks  became  more  general,  they 
were  no  longer  required  to  have  a  special  charter 
in  each  instance,  but  were  permitted  to  organize 
under  general  laws.  The  deposits  in  these  now 
amount  to  a  thousand  million  dollars,  and  the 
number  of  depositors  in  the  Northern  and  Middle 
States  is  about  three  millions.  Objection  has 
been  raised  in  some  quarters  to  the  joint-stock 
type  of  savings  bank,  on  the  ground  that  its 
deposits  must  be  loaned  profitably  for  the  pay- 
ment of  dividends,  and  that  consequently  greater 
risks  are  incurred.  This  risk  is  still  greater 
where  savings  banks  are  permitted  to  do  a  com- 
mercial business,  as  the  paper  which  they  dis- 
count may  prove  inconvertible  in  a  time  of 
commercial  depression  or  in  a  panic.  In  some 
of  the  States  the  depositors  are  given  the  prefer- 
ence in  such  circumstances. 

Mr.  T.  H.  Hinchman,  a  prominent  banker  of 
Detroit,  says :  u  The  change  from  the  purpose 
and  policy  of  original  savings  institutions  has 
been  progressive,  but  of  questionable  character. 
It  was  not  the  acquirement  of  experience  or  the 
result  of  greater  wisdom,  but  of  enterprise  by 
those  in  pursuit  of  greater  profit.  Different  aims 
and  objects  should  be  under  distinct,  separate, 


BANKS   AND   BANKING.  399 

and  appropriate  laws.  Benevolent  institutions 
require  different  men  and  other  management 
than  those  conducted  on  a  commercial  basis  for 
profit."  He  argues  that  there  should  be  separate 
enactments  for  savings  institutions  and  for  trust 
companies,  and  indeed  a  wise  distinction  is  made 
by  the  laws  of  most  of  the  older  States.  These 
undoubtedly  prove  advantageous  to  all  banks  and 
bankers,  as  they  simplify  and  increase  their 
business.  Officers  of  banks  doing  a  mixed  busi- 
ness are  thereby  relieved  from  error,  responsi- 
bilities, risks,  and  cares,  and  savings  depositors 
escape  commercial  hazard,  and  are  free  from 
risks  caused  by  mismanagement  of  persons  who 
advertise  as  savings  banks. 

Those  who  remember  the  frightful  confusion 
that  prevailed  before  the  establishment  of  the  Na- 
tional Banking  system,  when  the  notes  of  the  old 
State  banks  constituted  a  considerable  portion  of 
the  circulating  medium,  are  among  the  most  ardent 
admirers  of  the  present  system,  at  least  so  far  as 
its  method  for  the  issue  and  guarantee  of  notes 
is  concerned.  In  those  days  the  laborer  often 
went  to  his  home  on  Saturday  night  carrying 
the  wages  of  his  week's  labor  in  the  shape  of 
notes  issued  by  banks  in  half  a  dozen  different 
States,  and  when  his  thrifty  wife  went  out  to  ex- 
pend them  in  purchase  of  the  necessaries  of  life 
for  her  family  she  would  be  distressed  to  find 
that  for  some  she  could  get  but  ninety  cents  on 


400  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

the  dollar,  for  others  eighty  cents,  and  that  still 
others  were  of  too  questionable  a  character  to  be 
accepted  by  the  shopkeepers  at  all.  The  farmer 
often  received  for  the  fruits  of  his  toil  notes  of 
which  he  could  know  nothing,  and  which  would  be 
subsequently  declared  by  experts  to  be  worthless 
because  the  bank  which  had  issued  them  was  in 
liquidation,  and  it  was  not  at  all  uncommon  to 
find  a  forged  note  or  two  among  them,  for  in  the 
myriad  issues  of  bills  of  every  conceivable  design 
and  character  of  engraving  the  forger  had  an 
easy  task. 

The  present  National  Banking  system  probably 
never  could  have  been  called  into  existence  ex- 
cept for  the  difficulties  in  which  the  government 
was  involved  by  the  war  with  the  South,  for  a 
scheme  overthrowing,  as  it  did,  so  many  other 
systems  organized  by  the  authority  of  States 
would  have  met  with  an  irresistible  storm  of  op- 
position. As  it  was,  the  act  authorizing  it  was 
fought  not  only  by  the  opponents  of  the  adminis- 
tration then  in  power,  but  by  men  like  Roscoe 
Conkling,  of  New  York,  and  Senator  Collamer, 
of  Vermont. 

Mr.  Logan  C.  Murray,  President  of  the  United 
States  National  Bank  of  New  York  city,  thus 
speaks  of  the  National  Banking  system : 

"  In  1863  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
irrespective  of  State  lines,  took  hold  of  the  bank 
question  and  made  it  a  national  one,  inaugurat- 


BANKS    AND    BANKING.  401 

ing  a  state  of  perfection  which  I  believe  is  un- 
paralleled in  the  history  of  finance  among  the 
nations  of  the  world. 

'  This  child  of  the  war  between  the  States, 
born  in  the  very  travail  of  the  soul  of  the  nation, 
is  to-day  full-grown,  of  five  and  twenty  years, 
comely,  substantial,  and  has  not  been  disappoint- 
ing. Hard  money  was  scarce  in  1861.  There 
had  been  built  upon  this  limited  supply,  through 
the  channels  of  credit,  a  massive  structure  ;  sud- 
denly, as  the  storm  arose,  the  sky  became  dark 
and  the  curtains  of  night  were  let  down  around 
State  boundaries ;  with  these  parcels  of  credit, 
known  as  State  currency,  far  from  home,  with  no 
foster  parent  hand  near  by  to  protect  it,  inter- 
course cut  off,  we  found  ourselves  depending 
upon  a  broken  staff  which  was  as  chaff  in  the 
mighty  storm,  commercial  ruin  on  every  hand, 
and  our  shores  strewn  with  the  wrecks  of  a  dis- 
membered, useless  and  faithless  medium. 

;'  We  found  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
knocking  at  the  doors  of  our  strongest  moneyed 
institutions,  asking  from  them  aid  in  his  great  dis- 
tress, appealing  to  the  wisdom,  courage,  patriot- 
ism and  resources  of  an  almost  forlorn  hope. 
How  nobly  he  was  met  is  a  matter  of  history. 

"  Not,  however,  until  1863,  or  two  years  after- 
wards, did  the  National  Bank  system  have  its 
birth — born  of  despair,  of  want,  blood-bought, 
yea,  in  the  very  darkness  of  that  midnight  storm. 

26 


402  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURK. 

Yet  it  is  but  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  Aud  now 
let  us  sees  after  the  uses  which  have  been  made 
of  the  system,  and  after  the  unparalleled  prosper- 
ity which  has  come  to  us  as  a  nation  under  its 
influence,  if  the  parent  of  all  this  prosperity,  to 
a  greater  or  less  degree,  is  to  breathe  its  last — if 
its  strong  arm  is  to  be  stilled,  and  if  we  are  to 
look  for  something  better.  Shall  we  wonder  that 
men  are  bewildered  when  we  look  into  the  future 
and  ask  what  is  to  supply  the  vacuum  caused  by 
the  decay  of  the  National  Banking  system  ?  I 
for  one  answer : 

"  Do  not  fear,  the  National  Banking  system  is 
not  going  to  be  destroyed.  In  the  fulness  of 
time  it  will  be  yet  better  established. 

"  Let  us  divide  the  system  into  two  parts,  as  it 
were,  and  treat  them  as  they  may  be.  First, 
there  is  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States,  the 
Secretary  charged  with  certain  duties,  the  Comp- 
troller of  the  Currency,  the  executive  officer  with 
each  of  the  four  thousand  National  Banks  in 
every  section  of  the  land  reporting  to  him,  respon- 
sible to  him,  and  he  to  the  country  at  large- -and 
by  far  his  greatest  responsibility  is  the  care, 
faithful  preservation  and  safe  return  to  the  de- 
positors of  the  great  mass  of  the  deposits  of  the 
people  made  with  these  institutions.  This  is  one 
part,  and  the  great  part  of  the  system — the  care 
of  the  deposits  of  the  people  and  the  careful  and 
safe  loaning  of  these  deposits  to  the  commercial 


BANKS   AND   BANKING.  403 

and  manufacturing  community  by  each  institu- 
tion, all  under  its  general  supervision. 

"  Now  we  come  to  the  next  part  of  the  business 
of  the  system,  and  that  is  issuing  note  circula- 
tion. Does  it  occur  to  you  how  small  a  propor- 
tion of  the  circulation  of  the  United  States  to-day 
the  National  Bank  circulation  is  ?  Let  us  say  it 
is  about  one-fifth  part.  Now  let  us  assume  that 
this  shall  gradually  be  cut  off,  as  undesirable  as 
that  is ;  it  is  gradually  declining,  while  other 
mediums  of  circulation  are  advancing  in  volume. 
We  must  remember  that  money,  actual  money, 
is  about  four  per  cent,  only  of  all  commercial 
transaction ;  credit,  and  credit  alone,  supplies  the 
other  ninety-six  per  cent. 

"  I  do  not  think  any  National  Bank  or  any 
other  bank  should  emit  any  note  or  bill,  for  cir- 
culation without  it  is  secured.  Is  it  not  true  that 
there  are  very  many  National  Banks  in  the 
United  States  to-day  which  do  not  issue  circula- 
tion, even  though  banks  of  a  capital  of  $150,000 
and  above  are  required  to  lodge  but  $50,000  of 
bonds  with  the  Treasury,  and  some  of  these  do 
not  take  out  circulation  on  those  bonds — whereas 
a  small  bank  in  Dakota  is  required  to  lodge  one- 
fourth  part  of  its  capital,  say  if  it  is  $50,000,  it 
is  required  to  lodge  $12,500  of  bonds  with  the 
Treasury,  whether  it  takes  out  circulation  or  not  ? 
Why  is  it  so  ?  If  they  issue  no  circulation,  then 
no  bonds  should  be  required.  If  large  banks  to- 


404  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

day  are  not  issuing  circulation  on  the  small 
amount  of  bonds  required,  say  $50,000,  even 
though  its  capital  be  $5,000,000  (as  is  the  case), 
then  why  require  one-fourth  part  of  the  capital 
of  a  small  bank  to  be  invested  in  high-priced 
bonds  before  beginning  business  ? 

"  Therefore,  repeal  that  part  of  the  National 
Bank  act  which  requires  a  deposit  of  United 
States  bonds  from  a  bank  which  is  to  receive  no 
circulation.  If  a  bank  choose  to  lodge  bonds, 
then  give  it  the  privilege  of  issuing  circulation 
on  them,  as  of  old." 

The  reduction,  and  now  the  current  purchase, 
of  government  bonds,  which  serve  as  a  basis  of 
circulation  for  National  Bank  notes,  have  driven 
the  bonds  to  such  a  high  premium  that  the  banks 
some  years  ago  began  to  surrender  their  circula- 
tion at  such  a  rate  as  to  seriously  contract  the 
currency  and  excite  apprehension  as  to  the  result. 
But  for  the  issue  of  silver  certificates,  which  have 
largely  taken  their  place,  a  crisis  would,  in  the 
opinion  of  many  financiers,  have  been  reached 
long  ago.  The  profit  on  circulation  was  so  se- 
riously reduced  by  the  high  price  of  the  bonds,  on 
which  it  is  based,  that  a  number  of  banks  in  New 
York  city  and  elsewhere  surrendered  their  char- 
ters as  National  Banks  and  organized  under  the 
law  as  State  institutions.  They  were  largely  im- 
pelled to  do  this  by  a  desire  to  escape  the  restric- 
tions imposed  by  the  National  Banking  laws  and 


BANKS   AND   BANKING.  405 

the  scrutiny  of  the  Comptroller  of  the  Currency 
and  the  officials  of  his  department.  The  passage 
of  the  law  forbidding  over-certification  compelled 
a  number  of  them  to  take  this  course.  In  Au- 
gust, 1883,  the  Wall  Street  National  Bank  was 
forced  to  suspend.  An  examination  by  the  gov- 
ernment officials  showed  that  it  had  certified 
checks  of  a  firm  $200,000  in  excess  of  their  bal- 
ance in  cash  and  that  this  was  the  principal 
cause  of  the  bank's  failure.  The  cashier  was  in- 
dicted, but  the  bank  was  wound  up,  went  out  of 
existence,  and  the  intention  of  making  a  terrible 
example  of  the  delinquent  official,  who,  however, 
acted  with  the  approval  of  the  president  and  di- 
rectors, appears  to  have  been  abandoned. 

Touching  the  opposition  shown  in  Congress 
and  elsewhere  to  National  Banking  systems,  ex- 
United  States  Comptroller  of  the  Currency  John 
Jay  Knox  says : 

'  The  system  has  been  of  immense  benefit  to 
the  government  in  its  disbursements  and  in 
funding  temporary  loans  and  also  in  the  refund- 
ing of  its  debt  which,  but  twenty-eight  years  ago, 
amounted  to  $2,845,000,000.  The  National 
Banking  system  rendered  more  valuable  service 
to  the  government  than  any  other  human  agency 
in  the  resumption  of  specie  payments.  The 
National  Banks  held  on  the  day  of  resumption 
(January  i,  1879)  125,000,000  of  United  States 
demand  circulating  notes.  Sixty-two  National 


406  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

and  State  banks  in  the  Clearing  House  of  New 
York  unanimously  voted  to  receive  the  legal 
tender  notes  upon  an  equality  with  gold,  and  on 
the  day  of  resumption  the  banks  of  that  city, 
which  held  $40,000,000  of  legal  tender  notes,  did 
not  present  a  dollar  then,  or  subsequently  to  this 
day,  for  payment  in  coin.  As  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  war  the  banks  parted  with  their 
gold  for  the  benefit  of  the  government,  so  at  its 
close  and  upon  the  resumption  of  specie  pay- 
ments they  relinquished  the  right  of  again  de- 
manding it,  and  were  well  satisfied  to  receive  in- 
stead the  demand  notes  of  the  government, 
which  are  redeemable  in  coin  upon  presenta- 
tion. Yet,  notwithstanding  these  important  ser- 
vices, the  legislative  department  of  the  govern- 
ment has  never  been  strong  in  its  friendship  for 
this  system.  The  statutes  of  the  government 
contain  very  much  restrictive  and  very  little 
friendly  legislation  toward  the  institutions  which 
were  created  by  its  fiat.  A  few  years  ago,  when 
the  charters  of  most  of  the  banks  were  expiring, 
it  was  only  after  a  long  contest  that  an  act  was 
passed  authorizing  a  renewal  of  their  privileges. 
If  at  any  time  favorable  legislation  has  been 
granted  by  Congress,  it  has  been  given  '  grudg- 
ingly '  and  not  as  a  '  cheerful  giver.* 

"  We  have  heard  much  of  the  surplus  and  the 
necessity  of  the  reduction  of  the  revenue.  Both 
parties  profess  to  be  in  favor  of  such  reduction. 


BANKS   AND    BANKING.  407 

Both  parties  have  proposed  to  reduce  the  tax  on 
the  '  filthy  weed,'  and  both  parties  proposed  legis- 
lation granting  relief  to  the  whiskey  manufact- 
urer and  the  whiskey  drinker;  but  not  one  officer 
of  the  government,  nor  one  man  of  either  House, 
has  had  sufficient  courage  to  propose  the  lessen- 
ing or  the  repeal  of  the  tax  on  the  circulation  of 
the  banks,  which  now  amounts  to  less  than 
$1,700,000  and  which  is. the  last  of  the  remain- 
ing l  war  taxes,'  except  the  tax  upon  the  two 
deleterious  articles  referred  to,  which  are  con- 
sidered by  the  leading  civilized  nations  as  the 
most  fit  subjects  for  '  high  taxation.' 

"  Yet  no  class  of  corporations  since  the  organi- 
zation of  the  government  have  contributed  so 
largely  toward  the  support  of  the  State  and  the 
nation,  and  no  class  of  corporations  have  ever 
been  so  unmercifully  taxed  as  the  banking  in- 
stitutions of  this  country.  Not  only  have  Con- 
gress and  the  different  State  Legislatures  im- 
posed high  rates  of  taxation,  but  the  courts  of 
the  country,  including  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  composed  as  it  is  of  able  jurists 
who  should  be  devoid  of  all  prejudice,  have  con- 
strued the  questions  which  have  been  brought 
before  them  with  rigor  worthy  of  the  bitterest 
enemy  of  the  system.  While  other  corporations 
engaged  in  precisely  the  same  line  of  business 
are  authorized  to  do  business  almost  without 
legislative  restrictions  and  without  taxation,  the 


408  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURK. 

very  highest  rates  that  can  be  imposed  are  placed 
upon  these  institutions,  whose  only  source  of 
profit  is  the  loaning  of  money  at  the  rates  of  in- 
terest fixed  by  the  same  high  authority  which 
imposes  the  taxation.  Yet,  notwithstanding  the 
opposition  of  Congress  and  the  unfriendly  deci- 
sions of  the  courts  and  the  bitter  enemity  of  in- 
dividuals, the  system  has  steadily  and  rapidly 
grown  in  favor,  until  the  institutions  organized 
under  it  from  the  beginning  number  nearly  four 
thousand,  some  of  which  are  located  in  every 
State  and  Territory  as  well  as  in  every  consider- 
able village  in  the  land." 

As  the  steady  reduction  of  the  national  debt 
proceeds,  students  of  financial  questions  are  cast- 
ing about  for  some  substitute  for  the  present  out- 
standing circulation,  which  has  now  dwindled  to 
about  $150,000,000.  Mr.  Edward  Atkinson,  of 
Boston,  the  well-known  statistician  and  economist, 
presents  this  novel  suggestion : 

"  Will  any  Congress  dare  to  reduce  the  revenue 
to  such  an  extent  as  to  leave  any  considerable 
amount  of  debt  unpaid  at  the  end  of  the  present 
century,  whether  it  be  bonded  debt  or  demand 
debt  represented  by  legal  tender  notes  ?  I  sub- 
mit these  as  the  possible  conditions  which  may 
make  it  an  absolute  necessity  for  the  people  of 
this  country  to  invent  a  new  instrument  of  ex- 
change, to  take  the  place  of  the  legal  tender  notes 
and  of  the  bank  notes  secured  by  United  States 


BANKS   AND   BANKING.  -509 

bonds,  unless  the  whole  circulating  medium  is 
to  consist  either  of  bullion,  or  of  certificates  of 
the  government  backed  by  bullion,  dollar  for 
dollar.  The  tendency  of  events  is  to  cause  the 
withdrawal  from  circulation  of  uncovered  paper, 
to  wit:  National  Bank  notes  and  legal  tender 
notes,  leaving  only  in  circulation  certificates  of 
deposits  of  gold  or  silver,  backed  dollar  for  dol- 
lar by  actual  coin,  and  also  gold  and  silver  coin 
in  specie. 

"  No  position  could  be  stronger  than  this  ;  but 
the  difficulty  will  arise  in  the  fact  that  even  were 
the  annual  revenues  and  expenditures  of  the 
government  equalized,  the  working  of  the  Sub- 
Treasury  Act  in  dealing  with  such  large  sums 
as  now  constitute  the  financial  transactions  of  the 
government  might  seriously  interfere  with  the 
money  market  at  times.  Under  present  con- 
ditions it  is  becoming  apparent  that  it  is  impos- 
sible for  the  government  to  adjust  its  transactions 
to  the  ordinary  conditions  of  the  money  market ; 
it  is  also  impossible  for  the  government  to  perform 
the  functions  of  a  bank  of  issue ;  the  tension  is 
now  very  great,  and  the  conditions  cannot  pos- 
sibly be  continued  for  any  length  of  time.  The 
issue  of  certificates  of  deposit  of  gold  or  silver 
would  not  meet  the  varying  conditions  of  sup- 
ply and  demand  for  instruments  of  exchange 
or  circulating  notes,  and  there  will  soon  be  no 
government  bonds  available  as  securities  for 


HO  OUB    COfXTRY'S    FUTUKK. 

bank  notes.  There  is  a  volume  of  other  securities 
in  existence — Railroad,  State  and  City  bonds — 
which  would  form  an  absolute  security  for  a  circu- 
lating medium  covered  in  part  only  by  a  reserve 
of  actual  coin.  Can  the  arrangements  be  made 
and  the  authority  established  for  a  selection 
among  these  securities  of  those  which  ought  to 
be  made  available  to  secure  the  notes  which 
might  serve  as  instruments  of  exchange  ?  Can 
a  central  bureau,  bank  or  other  form  of  adminis- 
tration be  established  by  a  permissive  act,  with 
branches  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  to 
supply  an  elastic,  safe  and  suitable  paper  currency 
convertible  into  coin  on  demand,  on  a  separate 
foundation  and  under  a  separate  administration 
from  that  under  which  banks  of  deposit  and  dis- 
count may  continue  to  be  organized  ?  " 

The  New  York  banks  are  naturally  the  richest 
and  most  powerful  in  the  country,  and  New 
York,  no  doubt,  always  will  be  the  monetary 
centre  of  this  country.  But  her  absolute  domi- 
nancy  of  the  rest  of  the  country,  which  she  held 
for  so  many  years,  is  passing  away.  The  severest 
blow  to  New  York's  banking  supremacy  perhaps 
was  the  passage  of  the  law  permitting  the  impor- 
tation of  foreign  goods  in  bond  direct  to  interior 
points.  Formerly  the  grain  from  western  fields 
was  consigned  to  New  York,  and  the  contract  for 
its  shipment  abroad  made  there.  The  New  York 
banks  were  drawn  upon  for  funds,  and  earned  a 


BANKS   AND   BANKING.  411 

commission  upon  every  bushel  of  wheat  that  went 
out  through  the  Narrows.  In  like  manner,  all 
goods  brought  from  abroad  found  a  resting-place 
there,  and  the  duties  were  paid  in  New  York,  and 
it  was  New  York  capital  which  forwarded  them  to 
their  destination. 

But  all  that  has  been  changed.  The  merchant 
in  Chicago  or  St.  Louis  now  buys  his  goods  in 
Manchester  or  Paris  and  consigns  them  direct  to 
his  own  city.  The  West  reaches  out  over  New 
York's  head  and  helps  herself  to  whatever  she 
wants  in  the  Old  World.  So,  too,  with  what  she 
has  to  sell  in  Europe.  A  single  rate  is  made 
from  the  western  prairie  to  the  dock  at  Liverpool. 
Wheat  is  rushed  through  without  the  inter- 
vention of  any  New  York  factor.  As  new  towns 
and  cities  have  sprung  up  in  the  interior,  and 
new  manufacturing  centres  have  been  established, 
and  the  mineral  wealth  of  the  country  has  been 
developed,  the  West  has  grown  rich,  and  many 
of  the  banks  in  the  interior  now  carry  lines  of 
deposit  which  would  have  seemed  very  large  to 
the  most  important  institutions  in  the  East  a  few 
years  ago.  The  increase  in  the  number  of  "  re- 
serve cities  "  made  by  act  of  Congress  two  years 
ago  was  regarded  at  the  time  as  destined  to 
increase  the  amount  of  funds  in  the  western 
banks  at  the  expense  of  those  on  the  coast.  Up 
to  that  time  there  were  but  sixteen  "  reserve 
cities  "  in  the  United  States.  Each  of  these  was 


412          OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

required  to  keep  on  hand  at  all  times,  in  loanable 
money,  twenty-five  per  cent,  of  its  deposits,  while 
every  bank  outside  of  these  cities  was  required 
to  keep  but  fifteen  per  cent,  of  its  deposits  on 
hand.  Any  of  these  fifteen  per  cent,  banks  were 
permitted  to  keep  three-fifths  of  this  fifteen  per 
cent,  in  the  banks  of  any  of  the  sixteen  cities 
referred  to,  and  any  bank  located  in  the  reserve 
cities  might  keep,  if  it  wished  to  do  so,  one-half 
of  its  loanable  money  reserved  in  the  city  of  New 
York.  The  theory  was  that  New  York  was  the 
monetary  centre  of  the  country,  and  the  other 
fifteen  cities  were  the  respective  centres  of  the 
sections  in  which  they  were  located.  The  law, 
moreover,  made  provision  for  counting,  as  a  part 
of  the  required  reserve,  a  portion  of  the  balance 
which  it  was  supposed  the  conditions  of  trade 
would  require  them  to  keep  at  the  local  centres, 
and  at  the  general  centre. 

The  new  law  of  1887  added  a  number  of  other 
cities  to  the  list,  with  regard  to  reserves  which 
New  York  had  held  up  to  that  time.  The 
amendment,  however,  left  money  free  to  seek  its 
natural  channels  and  reservoirs,  assuming  that 
the  drift  of  the  current  had  changed  since  the 
passage  of  the  original  act.  But  experience 
since  has  shown  that  trade  requirements  bring  a 
large  proportion  of  the  reserves  to  New  York, 
and  so  the  new  legislation  has  wrought  compara- 
tively little  change.  The  tendency  to  withdraw 


BANKS   AND    BANKING.  41o 

funds  from  New  York  under  the  amended  law 
has  been  checked  by  the  fact  that  as  soon  as  any 
city  takes  on  its  new  dignity  of  a  central  reserve 
point,  it  can  no  longer  keep  a  portion  of  its  re- 
serve in  New  York,  but  must  keep  its  full  twenty- 
five  per  cent,  reserve  in  its  own  vaults  idle. 
Chicago  and  St.  Louis  have  become  full  central 
reserve  cities  like  New  York,  and,  as  higher  in- 
terest rates  rule  in  these  cities  than  in  New 
York,  it  is  natural  that  many  accounts  should  be 
transferred  from  the  latter  city ;  and  this  has 
happened,  as  is  demonstrated  by  Chicago  bank 
returns.  The  drift  of  currency  from  New  York 
last  fall  for  the  purpose  of  moving  the  crops, 
demonstrates  that,  while  the  western  banks  hold 
more  money  for  current  wants,  New  York  must 
still  be  drawn  upon  for  the  large  sums  needed  to 
move  grain  and  cotton  harvests. 

The  frequency  of  paragraphs  in  the  daily 
papers  announcing  the  departure  of  another 
cashier  for  Canada  demonstrates  that  there  is 
something  loose  in  the  methods  of  banking  insti- 
tutions. The  president  of  the  bank  does  not 
give  sufficient  attention  to  the  actual  transaction 
of  business.  He  is  usually  too  familiar  and  easy- 
going with  his  cashier  and  other  important  offi-* 
cials.  It  is  seldom  that  he  emerges  from  his 
parlor  to  go  behind  the  counter  and  see  what  is 
actually  going  on.  As  for  the  so-called  examina- 
tions made  from  time  to-  time  by  directors,  they 


414  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

are  in  ninety-nine  cases  out  of  every  hundred 
simply  farcical.  The  president  of  the  bank  tells 
the  cashier  some  fine  morning :  "  Get  things 
straightened  up  now,  Jimmy,  the  directors  are 
coming  to-morrow,  and  we  want  everything  in 
good  shape."  The  advent  of  the  directors  being 
thus  heralded,  everything  presents  a  fair  ap- 
pearance on  the  occasion  of  their  visit.  They 
chat  and  chaff  each  other,  glance  casually  over 
the  statements  presented  by  the  president,  and 
then  adjourn  to  indulge  in  a  luxurious  luncheon 
on  the  floor  above.  So  ends  their  examination. 

It  is  because  cashiers  are  relieved  from  all 
practical  surveillance  that  so  many  of  them  are 
led  to  ultimately  test  the  climate  of  Canada.  A 
broker,  speaking  to  the  cashier  some  fine  morn- 
ing, says  :  "  By  the  way,  Jones,  Brie  is  going  to 
have  a  big  rise ;  you'd  better  buy  yourself  a  cou- 
ple of  hundred."  "  Oh,  I  never  speculate,"  says 
Jones;  "haven't  got  the  money  to  do  it  with." 
"  That's  all  right,"  says  the  broker,  "  I'll  buy  a 
couple  of  hundred  for  you,  and  if  there's  any 
loss  you  can  make  it  good ;  but  I'm  sure  you'll 
make  money  on  it."  Possibly  the  cashier  ac- 
cedes to  this  proposition,  but  mbre  frequently,  if 
he  be  a  cautious  and  circumspect  man,  he  uses 
the  broker's  point  in  a  different  way.  He  has 
possibly  seen  the  broker  grow  rich  within  a  few 
years  and  envies  him.  Here  is  a  tempting  op- 
portunity to  make  a  handsome  turn,  for  his  sal- 


BANKS    AND    BANKING.  415 

ary  is  comparatively  small,  and  he  could  put  a 
few  thousand  dollars  to  exceedingly  good  use. 
It  may  be,  then,  that  he  borrows  from  a  friend, 
or  draws  upon  his  own  savings  for  money  which 
he  secretly  deposits  as  margin  with  some  stock 
firm  and  buys  two  hundred  Erie.  It  goes  down. 
His  margin  is  exhausted.  The  brokers  tell  him 
it  will  probably  decline  very  little  more.  But 
they  want  more  margin.  Right  under  his  hands 
are  big  fat  packages  of  bills  of  large  denomina- 
tions. What  shall  he  do  ?  If  his  brokers  sell 
him  out,  the  savings  of  years  are  gone  in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye.  If  he  is  a  weak  man,  he 
argues,  "  Why  not  take  a  thousand  dollar  bill  out 
of  this  package  marked  $50,000  ?  It  would  never 
be  missed."  Erie  is  sure  to  go  up  to-morrow, 
when  he  can  withdraw  the  amount  from  his 
brokers  and  put  it  back  in  the  bundle.  He  will 
be  saved  from  every  loss  and  nobody  the  worse 
for  it.  Unfortunately,  things  do  not  turn  out 
that  way.  Erie  goes  lower.  The  thousand  dol- 
lars is  gone.  What  shall  he  do  ?  His  theft,  for 
such  it  now  plainly  has  become,  will  probably  not 
be  discovered  for  some  time.  What  shall  he  do? 
Speculate  in  some  other  stock  and  try  to  make 
up  the  loss.  And  he  does  it.  It  is  useless  to 
pursue  the  theme  any  further.  Grown  more 
desperate  from  day  to  day,  he  plunges  ;  his  losses 
become  too  large  to  be  longer  concealed,  and  one 
day,  fearing  exposure,  he  takes  to  flight,  possibly 


416  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

carrying  off  additional  funds  of  the  bank.  It 
may  be  that  the  first  money  he  took  was  not  to 
speculate  with  but  to  pay  some  household  bill. 
But  it  leads  to  the  same  result  in  the  end. 

Now,  if  the  president  were  in  the  habit  of 
casually  dropping  around  to  the  cashier's  desk 
and  looking  over  his  cash,  the  initial  step 
in  this  march  to  ruin  would  be  prevented. 
Suppose  the  president  picks  up  hap-hazard  any 
one  of  the  many  packages  of  bills  and  counts 
them  over  to  see  that  they  tally  with  the  total 
marked  on  the  wrapper.  The  knowledge  that  he 
is  liable  to  do  that  at  any  time  will  deter  the 
cashier  from  abstracting  that  first  bill,  and  he  is 
saved  from  the  subsequent  crime  and  disgrace. 

Unfortunately,  dishonesty  in  banks  is  not  con- 
fined to  cashiers.  Many  a  bank  director  amasses 
large  sums  by  means  which  are  quite  as  dis- 
graceful as  embezzlements,  although  they  are 
not  so  harshly  punished.  Mr.  Moneybags,  for 
instance,  is  a  director  in  several  large  banking 
institutions.  He  is  also  in  all  probability  a  very 
heavy  speculator  in  the  stocks  of  railroads  in 
which  he  has  inside  information.  As  director  of 
bank  No.  i  he  sees  that  a  certain  man  has 
pledged  a  block  of  the  stock  of  a  certain  corpora- 
tion as  collateral  security  for  a  heavy  loan.  As 
director  in  bank  No.  2  he  perhaps  learns  that  the 
same  man  is  borrowing  largely  from  that  institu- 
tion and  on  another  block  of  the  same  stock.  It 


BANKS   AND    BANKING.  417 

is  clear  that  the  speculator  in  question  is  very 
heavily  loaded — probably  carrying  more  of  that 
stock  than  is  prudent.  Anything  which  would 
seriously  depreciate  the  market  value  of  that 
stock  would  probably  force  him  to  throw  over- 
board a  considerable  portion  of  his  holdings. 
The  director  of  easy  conscience  quietly  puts  out 
a  line  of  shorts  in  the  stock  in  question  at  the 
ruling  high  prices.  At  the  next  directors'  meet- 
ing of  bank  No.  i  he  tells  his  fellow-directors 
that  he  hears  rumors  affecting  Mr.  Speculator's 
credit,  that  he  is  overloaded  with  the  stock  of  the 
road  in  question,  and  suggests  to  the  president 
that  it  would  be  prudent  to  invite  Mr.  Speculator 
to  return  the  money  he  had  borrowed  and  take 
away  his  stocks.  Possibly  he  causes  similar  ac- 
tion to  be  taken  by  the  other  bank  of  which  he 
is  a  director.  Mr.  Speculator,  so  unexpectedly 
called  upon  to  return  very  large  sums  of  money, 
is  embarrassed.  He  is  obliged  to  go  into  the 
market  and  sell  a  large  amount  of  the  stock  in 
question.  The  price  falls  sharply  in  consequence 
and  the  director  covers  his  shorts  at  a  handsome 
profit.  It  is  doubtless  true  that  a  majority  of 
bank  directors  are  above  this  sort  of  thing ;  but 
there  are  bank  directors,  and  not  a  few  of  them 
either,  who  contrive  to  turn  their  official  positions 
to  their  personal  profit. 
27 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

OUR  CITIES. 

A  GREAT  city  is  a  great  sore — a  sore  which 
never  can  be  cured. 

The  greater  the  city,  the  greater  the  sore. 

It  necessarily  follows  that  New  York,  being 
the  greatest  city  in  the  Union,  is  the  vilest  sore 
on  our  body  politic. 

If  any  one  doubts  it,  let  him  live  in  New  York 
awhile  and  keep  his  eyes  and  ears  open. 

The  trouble  about  great  cities  is  not  that  they 
have  any  impetus  or  influence  especially  their 
own,  but  that  every  one,  from  the  vilest  all  the 
way  up  to  the  best,  is  compelled  by  circum- 
stances of  city  life  to  often  conduct  his  own  daily- 
walk  and  conversation  on  lines  which  are  not 
entirely  natural,  and  which  never  can  be  made  so. 

It  would  be  useless  to  deny  that  in  every  large 
city  may  be  found  a  number  of  the  best  men  and 
women  that  humanity  has  been  able  to  evolve. 
In  the  great  cities  are  found  many  of  our  wisest 
statesmen,  our  greatest  theologians,  our  best 
business  men,  and  a  host  of  lesser,  but  perhaps 
not  less  important  individuals,  whose  influence 

(418) 


OUR  CITIES.  419 

for  good  upon  the  world  is  known  and  recognized 
everywhere.  Nevertheless,  these  are  exceptions 
to  the  rule.  They  are  not  what  they  are  because 
of  the  city ;  they  are  in  the  city  simply  because 
it  gives  them  a  better  centre  and  starting-place 
for  whatever  woik  may  be  incumbent  upon  them. 

The  first  deadening  influence  of  the  city  is  that 
no  one  knows  any  one  else.  Of  course  every  one 
has  some  acquaintances,  and  some  people  are 
said  to  be  in  the  best  society  and  to  know  every- 
body, but  "  everybody  "  is  a  relative  term,  and  it 
never  means  as  much  in  the  largest  city  as  it 
does  in  a  village  of  a  thousand  people.  The 
postman  knows  everybody  by  name,  and  so  does 
the  tax-collector  and  the  man  who  brings  you 
your  gas  bill,  but  individual  acquaintance — the 
touch  of  elbow — the  touch  of  nature  that  makes 
the  world  akin,  must  not  be  looked  for  in  any 
large  city  in  the  Union,  least  of  all  in  New  York, 
which  in  spite  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of 
existence,  is  still  so  new  comparatively  that  al- 
most all  of  its  prominent  citizens  were  born 
somewhere  else.  The  names  of  prominent 
Americans  who  reside  in  New  York  will  natu- 
rally occur  to  any  one,  yet  it  is  quite  safe  to  say 
that  not  one  of  these  gentlemen  know  by  sight 
and  name,  let  alone  by  personal  acquaintance, 
more  than  one  person  in  five  who  reside  within 
a  two-minute  walk  of  his  house. 

An  ex-cabinet  officer,  a  gentleman  whose  varied 


420  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

abilities  have  made  him  known  throughout  the 
civilized  world,  was  once  asked  who  was  his 
neighbor  on  the  right.  The  houses  of  the  two 
men  touched  each  other,  as  two  houses  must,  in 
the  city  of  New  York,  but  the  wise  and  largely 
acquainted  gentleman  was  obliged  to  say  that  he 
did  not  know.  When  the  questioner  informed 
him  that  the  person  occupying  the  adjoining 
house  was  a  notorious  thief  for  whom  the  police 
had  been  long  in  search,  he  was  astonished  and 
shocked.  Nevertheless,  when  he  a  few  months 
afterward  had  his  house  robbed  and  drove  about 
violently  in  a  cab  in  search  of  the  police  captain 
of  his  precinct,  it  took  him  an  hour  to  discover 
that  the  said  police  official  resided  next  door  to 
him  on  the  left.  Afterward  he  was  teased  about 
his  lack  of  knowledge  of  his  neighbors,  and  he 
admitted  frankly  that,  although  he  was  a  man 
without  "  airs,"  and  had  always  made  it  a  custom 
to  fraternize  freely  with  his  fellow-men,  he  knew 
but  two  individuals  who  resided  on  the  same 
block  with  himself,  and  one  of  these  was  his  own 
grocer,  who  occupied  a  store  on  the  corner. 

"  If  this  is  so  wjth  the  green  tree,  what  must 
it  be  with  the  dry  ?  "  Men  whose  sole  business 
is  to  earn  their  daily  living  are  glad  to  find  a  de- 
cent roof  over  their  heads  anywhere  in  a  large 
city  and  drop  into  the  best  place  they  can  find, 
regardless  of  who  may  be  their  neighbors,  and 
utterly  unable  to  devote  any  time  to  their  neigh- 


OUR   CITIES.  421 

bors,  even  should  they  be  fortunate  enough  to 
become  acquainted  with  them.  Neighborhood 
feeling  and  sentiment,  which  is  of  incalculable 
benefit  in  all  communities  not  thickly  settled, 
has  no  influence  whatever  in  a  large  city.  A 
man  may  not  only  live  in  a  house  between  two 
people  of  whom  he  knows  nothing,  but  the  great 
value  of  ground  in  the  city  of  New  York  and  the 
limited  area  has  compelled  the  erection  of  a 
number  of  buildings  known  as  "  flat "  and 
"apartment"  and  "tenement"  houses,  and  very 
few  men  know  the  people  who  live  under  the 
same  roof  with  themselves. 

An  amusing  story  is  told  of  a  couple  of  editors, 
who  were  questioned  about  each  other  and  each 
replied  that  he  had  not  the  honor  of  the  other's 
acquaintance.  The  answer  seemed  to  puzzle 
those  who  heard  it,  and  the  subsequent  remarks 
elicited  a  demand  for  an  explanation,  when  it  was 
learned  that  these  two  men,  members  of  the  same 
profession,  and  both  entirely  reputable  citizens, 
had  been  residing  in  the  same  building  for  six 
months ;  but  as  one  was  at  home  only  by  day- 
light, and  the  other  only  at  night,  they  had 
never  chanced  to  meet  under  their  own  roof. 

Of  course,  if  such  ignorance  may  come  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  events  regarding  entirely  re- 
spectable people,  cities  must  form  an  admirable 
hiding-place  for  disreputable  and  dangerous 
characters  of  all  sorts.  The  time  was  when  a 


422  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

man  detected  in  crime  thought  it  advisable  to  run 
away  from  a  large  city.  But  nowadays  he  knows 
better.  He  stays  as  near  home  as  possible,  know- 
ing that  there  are  numberless  opportunities  for 
keeping  himself  entirely  out  of  sight  and  out  of 
mind  of  every  one  who  ever  knew  him.  De- 
faulters who  have  a  great  deal  of  mone^  in  their 
pockets,  and  also  those  who  have  none  at  all,  oc- 
casionally find  it  desirable  to  go  to  Canada  or 
Hurope,  but  the  rogue  who  has  two  or  three 
thousand  dollars  to  spare  knows  perfectly  well 
that  by  keeping  in-doors  in  New  York  he  can  ab- 
solutely escape  detection.  The  police  may  know 
him  by  sight,  but  the  keepers  of  boarding-houses 
do  not,  neither  do  their  servants  ;  and  so  long  as 
he  will  remain  in  his  room,  have  .his  meals  sent 
to  him,  and  take  his  exercise  and  outings  only 
after  dark  in  such  disguise  as  any  one  can  im- 
provise at  very  short  notice,  he  is  entirely  safe 
from  detection.  One  of  the  bank  defaulters  who 
ranks  as  one  of  the  most  successful  in  the  annals 
of  such  crime  in  the  city  of  New  York,  was  looked 
for  in  Canada  and  all  over  Europe  for  eight 
months,  and  finally  by  accident  was  discovered  in 
a  boarding-house  only  two  squares  away  from  his 
original  place  of  residence. 

Criminals  when  not  actually  plying  their  vo- 
cation generally  go  to  large  cities,  for  two  rea- 
sons :  first,  to  spend  their  ill-gotten  gains  in  pleas- 


OUR  CITIES.  423 

ure,  and  secondly,  that  as  a  rule  cities  are  the 
best  hiding-places. 

For  the  same  reason  that  causes  desperate 
criminals  to  hide  in  the  larger  cities,  all  persons 
who  have  in  their  lives  any  features  which  they 
wish  to  conceal,  find  the  cities  preferable  places 
of  residence.  One  man  of  large  property  and 
some  national  prominence  died  a  few  years  ago  in 
the  city  in  which  he  had  been  doing  business  for 
thirty  years,  and  after  he  died  it  was  discovered 
that  he  had  nine  wives  living,  from  no  one  of 
whom  had  he  ever  separated  through  the  for- 
mality of  a  divorce.  Each  of  these  nine  women 
imagined  herself  his  own  and  only  wife.  Any 
man,  who  has  formed  an  undesirable  alliance  in 
business  or  in  love  or  otherwise,  knows  that  with 
very  little  trouble  he  can  hide  all  traces  of  his 
mischief  by  going  to  a  large  city  to  live. 

An  inevitable  consequence  is  that  the  number 
of  able  but  undesirable  characters  who  exist  in 
the  cities,  having  left  other  places  for  the  good 
of  those  who  are  left  behind,  have  a  depressing 
influence  upon  the  moral  atmosphere  of  other 
classes  of  residents.  Men  meet  men  whom  they 
never  saw  before,  and  whom  they  are  obliged  to 
judge  entirely  by  appearance  and  professions. 
It  is  the  same  in  business  as  it  is  in  society. 
Not  a  year  passes  in  which  some  adventurer  does 
not  impose  himself  for  a  time  upon  the  best 
society  of  New  York  and  of  other  cities.  And 


424  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

although,  it  would  seem  that  his  antecedents 
might  easily  be  discovered  upon  the  basis  of  such 
information  as  he  may  feel  obliged  to  give  about 
himself,  the  fact  remains  that  society  is  "  taken 
in  "  quite  as  often  as  banks  and  business  men 
and  private  individuals.  Several  years  ago  a 
notorious  scamp,  who  had  been  in  several  State- 
prisons,  came  to  New  York,  organized  a  business 
firm,  took  a  large  store,  was  discovered  in  the 
course  of  time  to  be  carrying  on  operations  closely 
akin  to  stealing,  and  when  his  record  was  thor- 
oughly searched  and  sifted  by  the  police,  it  was 
discovered  that  his  victims  were  principally  the 
largest  wholesale  establishments  in  the  city  of 
New  York — establishments  which  employed  a 
number  of  men  for  the  sole  purpose  of  investi- 
gating the  character  and  resources  of  any  one 
applying  to  them  for  credit  or  for  any  business 
relations  beyond  ordinary  purchases  for  cash. 

These  smart  scamps,  who  are  a  hundred  times 
as  numerous  as  the  newspaper  disclosures  would 
lead  the  public  to  imagine,  have  a  terribly  de- 
moralizing influence  upon  the  young  men  who 
flock  to  the  city  from  all  parts  of  the  rural  dis- 
tricts as  well  as  upon  those  who  are  brought  up 
in  the  city.  To  see  a  rascal  succeed  has  a  bad 
effect  upon  any  one.  Even  the  most  righteous 
man  will  mournfully  quote  from  Scripture  that 
"  the  wicked  shall  flourish  as  the  green  bay 
tree;"  that  "  their  eyes  stand  out  with  fatness; 


OUR  CITIES.  425 

they  have  more  than  heart  can  wish,"  where  the 
respectable  man  has  to  lie  awake  nights  to  devise 
ways  and  means  of  paying  his  coal-bill  and 
avoiding  trouble  with  his  landlord.  Business 
enterprises  containing  any  amount  of  promise 
are  organized,  forced  upon  the  public  by  smart 
schemers  of  whom  no  one  knows  anything,  and 
all  of  them  succeed  in  obtaining  a  great  deal  of 
money.  When  discovery  comes,  as  of  course  it 
must  come  sooner  or  later,  the  villain  never 
makes  restitution  to  any  extent  and  is  never  ade- 
quately punished  for  his  crime.  So,  the  citizen 
who  pretends  to  be  respectable,  but  always  has  an 
eye  out  for  the  main  chance,  is  moved  by  such 
examples  to  see  whether  he  cannot  do  something 
sharp  himself,  and  get  away  before  the  crash 
comes. 

Society  in  large  cities  is  said  to  be  exclusive. 
It  must  be,  for  its  own  protection.  It  cannot 
possibly  be  too  exclusive.  People  with  and  with- 
out letters  of  introduction  succeed  in  forming 
acquaintances,  becoming  part  of  one  or  another 
social  set,  even  get  into  the  churches,  open  bank 
accounts,  go  into  business,  and  a  year  or  two 
afterward  are  discovered  to  have  antecedents 
which  would  make  a  person  of  ordinary  respecta- 
bility hold  up  his  hands  in  horror.  Such  occur- 
rences have  been  so  common,  and  the  individuals 
concerned  have  so  often  been  not  only  men  but 
women,  that  the  exclusiveness  of  city  society 


426  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

extends  even  to  the  churches  and  school-rooms. 
The  half-grown  child  attending  a  public  or  pri- 
vate school  is  warned  against  making  any  ac- 
quaintances whatever  except  with  the  children 
of  families  whom  its  parents  already  know.  The 
member  of  a  church  may  have  a  stranger  shown 
into  his  pew  again  and  again  on  Sundays,  and 
extend  to  him  the  courtesy  of  an  open  prayer- 
book  or  hymnal,  but  in  self-defence  he  is  com- 
pelled to  stop  at  that.  The  cordiality,  freedom 
of  speech,  and  general  recognition,  which  is  the 
custom  in  small  towns  and  in  rural  districts 
throughout  the  world,  is  denied  the  prudent  in- 
habitant of  a  city,  no  matter  how  hearty  his 
inclination  may  be  to  extend  a  welcoming  hand 
to  every  one  whom  he  may  meet.  Young  men 
entering  society,  young  women  seen  for  the  first 
time  in-  some  social  circle,  are  at  first  regarded 
very  much  as  a  stranger  entering  a  mining  town 
in  the  West,  where  it  is  supposed  no  one  goes 
unless  he  has  good  reason  to  get  away  from  his 
original  home. 

Nowhere  in  the  world  are  there  more  charitable 
hearts  with  plenty  of  money  behind  them  than 
in  large  cities,  yet  nowhere  else  is  there  more 
suffering.  Your  next-door  neighbor  may  be 
starving  to  death  and  you  not  know  anything 
about  it.  You  know  nothing  of  his  comings  and 
nothing  of  his  goings  ;  he  knows  nothing  of  you, 
and  if  he  has  any  spirit  whatever,  and  any 


OUR    CITIES.  427 

respect  for  himself,  he  would  rather  apply  to  the 
police  or  to  the  authorities  in  charge  of  the  poor 
than  to  the  people  living  nearest  to  him.  When- 
ever the  newspapers  of  a  city  make  some  startling 
disclosure  of  destitution  and  suffering  a  number 
of  purses  open  instantly,  and  frequently  some  of 
the  sufferers  have  received  gifts  from  their  own 
landlords,  who  actually  did  not  know  of  the  name 
and  existence  of  the  tenant.  A  judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  city  of  New  York  has  long 
been  known  as  a  frequent  and  prompt  visitor  in 
person  to  all  individuals  reported  as  in  destitute 
condition  and  deserving  of  immediate  assistance, 
yet  he  said  once  to  his  own  pastor,  and  to  his 
own  physician  also,  who  chanced  to  be  present, 
that  the  great  sorrow  of  his  life  was,  that  he  was 
utterly  incapacitated  by  the  conditions  of  city  life 
from  discovering  for  himself  the  whereabouts  of 
individuals  whom  he  would  gladly  assist  with  his 
pocket  and  his  counsel. 

As  nobody  knows  anybody  in  the  large  cities, 
what  is  called  the  floating  population  have  every- 
thing their  own  way,  each  one  for  himself.  Busi- 
ness wrongs  that  would  not  be  tolerated  for  an 
instant  in  a  smaller  community  are  perpetrated 
with  entire  impunity  in  the  large  cities.  The 
poorer  classes  have  no  strong  friend  or  acquaint- 
ance to  complain  to.  Were  they  in  a  smaller 
place  they  would  know  some  one  ;  probably  they 
would  knew  everybody  of  any  consequence,  and 


428  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

also  be  known,  and  could  quickly  bring  public 
sentiment  to  their  aid,  but  in  a  large  city  there 
is  no  such  opportunity.  The  only  hope  of  the 
oppressed  is  in  the  courts,  which  always  are  over- 
crowded with  business,  and  can  give  very  little 
time  to  any  one,  and  in  the  press,  which  is  also 
overcrowded  with  work,  and  should  not  be  charged 
with  this  sort  of  responsibility. 

Temptation  will  exist  wherever  humanity  is 
found,  but  for  a  concentration  of  all  temptations, 
graded  to  suit  all  capacities  of  human  weakness, 
the  great  city  stands  pre-eminent.  There  is  no 
vice  that  cannot  be  committed  in  it — committed 
with  reasonable  assurance  that  it  will  not  be  dis- 
covered. A  man  whose  habits  are  apparently 
correct,  who  has  no  known  vices,  whose  daily 
manner  with  his  fellow-men  seems  all  that  it 
should  be,  may  with  entire  safety  change  his 
manner  at  night,  and  re-enact  the  drama  of  Dr. 
Jekyll  and  Mr.  Hyde.  It  is  worse  than  that. 
He  not  only  may,  but  in  a  great  many  instances 
he  does.  Any  man  whose  business  compels  him 
to  know  a  number  of  persons  by  sight,  and  whose 
hours  of  duty  keep  him  out-of-doors  in  the  "  wee 
sma'  hours,"  occasionally  sees  things  which  stag- 
ger him.  He  sees  citizens  of  good  repute  in 
company  which  any  village  loafer  would  be 
ashamed  to  be  seen  in  by  his  own  acquaintances. 
He  sees  policemen  taking  charge  of  men  who  by 
daylight  the  police  of  their  own  locality  regard 


OUR   CITIES.  429 

with  extreme  respect.  He  sees  the  high  and  the 
low  mingle  on  the  same  level,  and  from  their 
manners  he  would  not  be  able  to  know  one  from 
the  other.  Newspapers  are  sometimes  blamed 
for  publishing  sensational  stories,  which  reminds 
me  of  a  remark  once  made  by  the  famous  Parson 
Brownlow,  of  Bast  Tennessee.  He  was  called 
to  account  one  day  for  using  profane  language, 
he  being  a  minister  of  the  gospel.  "If  you 
knew,"  said  he,  "  how  many  cuss  words  I  hold 
in,  you  would  not  blame  me  for  the  few  I  let 
out."  If  the  newspapers  were  to  print  all  the 
sensational  stories  which  come  to  them  they 
would  have  to  double  the  size  of  their  sheets,  and 
still  they  would  have  no  room  for  any  decent 
news  whatever. 

I  repeat  it,  great  cities  are  great  sores,  and  it 
is  to  the  interest  of  every  one  that  they  should 
in  some  way  be  extracted  from  the  body  politic 
and  be  allowed  and  compelled  to  maintain  a  sep- 
arate existence.  I  know  that  the  parallel  is  not 
exact,  but  such  things  have  been  done  in  some 
cases.  The  city  is  a  millstone  about  the  neck  of 
the  State  in  almost  all  cases.  Whatever  may  be 
the  political  preference  of  the  reader,  he  must  ad- 
mit the  fact  that  the  single  city  of  New  York  po- 
litically dominates  the  State,  although  containing 
only  about  one-fourth  of  the  population,  and  that 
the  expressed  will  and  intention  of  a  large  major- 
ity of  the  voters  of  the  State  outside  the  metrop- 


430  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

olis  is  steadily  neutralized  by  a  great  majority 
composed  principally  of  ignorant  persons  who  in- 
fest a  great  city.  The  evil  has  impressed  itself 
strongly  upon  the  minds  of  publicists  and  jour- 
nalists of  all  degrees  to  such  an  extent  that  the 
suggestion  has  often  been  made  that  the  city 
should  be  allowed  a  separate  organization  by  and 
in  itself,  somewhat  analogous  to  the  position 
once  held  by  the  free  cities  of  Germany.  In 
such  case,  whatever  may  be  the  ultimate  political 
results,  the  fact  would  remain  that  each  portion 
of  the  divided  community  would  have  its  own 
will  distinctly  expressed,  whereas  at  present  one 
neutralizes  the  other.  New  York  has  been  mak- 
ing the  attempt  for  years  by  a  series  of  special 
governments  by  commission,  the  origin  being  in 
special  enactments  by  the  legislature  at  Albany. 
The  results  have  not  been  successful,  but  the 
trouble  was  not  lack  of  principle  in  the  enact- 
ments, but  in  the  individuals  selected  to  carry  on 
the  experiment.  The  suggestion  however  con- 
tinues to  be  made.  Similar  plans  have  been  men- 
tioned regarding  some  other  large  cities  of  the 
United  States.  And  it  is  not  impossible  that  all 
of  them  may  be  granted  "  home  rule "  in  the 
strictest  sense,  and  that  the  States  at  large  will 
thus  escape  the  city  rule  to  which  at  present 
they  are  being  subjected. 


OUR  CITIES.  431 

THE  DARKER  SIDE. 

What  already  lias  been  said  about  the  evils  of 
city  life  and  influence  may  seem  bad  enough,  but 
there  is  another  side  that  is  worse.  Crime  and 
license  affect  the  human  mind  strongly  when 
brought  before  it  as  the  cause  of  a  large  amount 
of  irregularity,  but  the  public  heart  is  more 
quickly  and  firmly  impressed  by  the  knowledge 
of  suffering. 

The  amount  of  suffering  that  exists  in  all 
large  cities  merely  through  enforced  conditions 
of  life  passes  power  of  expression.  No  one  has 
ever  yet  been  able  to  do  the  subject  justice. 
Many  who  have  worked  among  the  poor  have 
lost  life  and  hope,  and  mind  itself,  in  contempla- 
tion of  the  suffering  and  sorrow  which  they  have 
witnessed  and  been  unable  to  relieve.  To  attempt 
to  care  for  the  poor  of  a  large  city  affects  one  very 
much  like  an  effort  to  pour  water  into  a  sieve ; 
the  demand  is  continual,  yet  nothing  seems  to  be 
effected. 

Almost  everywhere  outside  of  the  cities  it  is 
assumed  at  the  beginning  that  those  who  suffer 
through  their  poverty  in  laige  cities  are  either 
indolent  or  vicious.  A  more  cruel  mistake  could 
not  possibly  be  made.  There  are  many  idlers  in 
any  large  city,  as  a  matter  of  course,  but  the 
great  majority  of  the  people  work  hard  to  keep 
soul  and  body  together.  The  largest  gathering 


432  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

of  idlers  that  any  occurrence  can  bring  together 
does  not  equal  in  numbers  the  procession  which 
one  may  see  in  five  minutes'  time  on  any  thor- 
oughfare during  regular  hours  of  going  to  work 
or  returning  home. 

A  full  half  of  the  population  of  the  largest 
city  in  the  Union  reside  in  tenement  houses. 
The  tenement  house  at  best  is  unfit  for  human 
residence  if  the  people  who  inhabit  it  expect  to 
enjoy  good  health,  and  if  the  children  who  are 
part  of  almost  every  family  are  expected  to  grow 
and  develop  properly  in  body  and  soul.  Yet  the 
bald  fact  is  that  more  than  half  a  million  of  the 
inhabitants  of  this  country  live  on  several  square 
miles  of  land  in  one  single  city.  Land  is  costly, 
builders'  work  is  expensive;  the  cheapest-built 
houses  cost  a  great  deal  of  money,  and  conse- 
quently the  space  in  them  must  be  divided  and 
subdivided  with  great  skill  and  detail  if  the 
poorer  classes  are  to  find  habitation  at  all. 

Almost  all  of  this  half  million  people  are 
honest,  hard  workers.  The  heads  of  families  are 
among  the  first  to  go  to  work  in  the  morning  and 
among  the  last  to  go  to  their  homes  at  night. 
They  are  those  who  work  for  the  smallest  wages 
and  do  the  hardest  work.  They  and  their  families 
need  just  as  much  food  to  support  life  as  any  of 
the  well-to-do  portion  of  the  population.  But  in 
any  large  city  the  necessities  of  life  are  costly, 
and  they  are  particularly  so  in  our  largest  city. 


OUR  CITIES.  433 

The  wages  of  an  ordinary  mechanic  or  working- 
man  will  barely  pay  the  rent  of  the  cheapest 
apartment  and  buy  food  for  five  people.  Clothing 
must  be  left  to  chance,  luxury  must  be  unthought- 
of,  and  the  only  possible  relaxation  is  that  to  be 
found  in  the  streets  or  at  places  where  entertain- 
ment is  free. 

More  heroism  is  displayed  in  some  of  these 
humble  homes  than  ever  was  witnessed  on  any 
battle-field  of  which  the  world  has  knowledge. 
The  wolf  at  the  door  is  a  thousand  times  worse 
foe  than  the  enemy  on  the  frontier.  The  soldier 
always  has  glory  to  look  to  in  case  he  dies.  The 
suffering  laborer  dies,  if  die  he  must,  in  abject 
misery  at  the  thought  of  his  family's  future. 
Whatever  his  health,  however  numerous  his  dis- 
comforts, however  small  his  pay,  he  must  work 
and  go  on  working,  or  his  family  must  starve. 
He  has  no  friends  who  are  rich  or  influential ; 
if  he  had,  he  would  not  be  a  poor  working-man ; 
his  only  friends  are  those  of  his  own  kind,  and 
while  almost  any  of  them  would  in  time  of  neces- 
sity share  their  last  loaf  with  him,  there  are  times 
when  the  most  friendly  of  them  have  no  loaf  to 
share.  A  day  or  two  of  sickness  of  the  head  of 
the  family  imposes  a  stern  chase  which  lasts  long 
and  costs  frightfully.  The  death  of  a  member 
of  their  family  means  absolute  ruin.  This  would 
seem  bad  enough,  but  there  is  worse  behind  it. 
The  necessity  of  sending  the  remains  of  the 

28 


434  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

loved  one  to  the  burial  ground  of  the  paupers  is 
one  of  the  terrible  experiences  which  are  very 
common  in  large  cities.  Some  of  them  cannot 
afford  even  the  small  time  necessary  to  do  that 
much  ;  so,  with  many  tears  an4  prayers,  perhaps 
sometimes  with  many  curses  upon  the  hard  luck 
to  which  fate  or  fortune  has  reduced  them,  the 
remains  are  quietly  carried  to  the  river-side  at 
night  and  there  dropped  from  sight,  though  not 
from  memory.  A  few  years  ago  a  newspaper  at- 
tache, attending  one  of  the  large  excursions  given 
by  charitable  persons  to  children  of  the  poor, 
overheard  a  mother  and  daughter  talking  about 
a  sick  babe  which  the  daughter  was  to  carry  on 
board  the  boat.  The  mother  could  not  go.  She 
had  to  work  or  the  family  must  starve.  She  took 
her  child  in  her  arms,  again  and  again  kissed  it, 
cried  over  it,  and  then  began  a  skilful  conversa- 
tion with  her  daughter  leading  up  to  the  possi- 
bility and  advisability,  in  case  of  death  during 
the  trip,  of  dropping  the  little  darling's  remains 
overboard,  saying  that  the  deep,  clean  sea  was  a 
cleaner  burial  place  than  the  dark  ground  in  the 
cemetery.  The  child  listened  with  wondering 
face  and  finally  agreed  with  her  mother.  As  for 
the  reporter,  he  was  so  horrified  that  he  was 
utterly  unfit  for  work  for  a  year  after,  .although 
he  imagined  himself  hardened  to  scenes  of  suf- 
fering. 

The  wildest  imagination  cannot  possibly  exceed 


OUR  CITIES.  435 

some  actual  facts  of  tenement-house  life.  The 
story  has  been  told  again  and  again,  until  there 
is  no  novelty  in.  it,  of  families  crowded  together 
so  closely  that  all  the  decencies  of  life  were  for- 
gotten, because  it  was  impossible  to  observe  them, 
of  bad  associations  formed,  of  children  wilting 
and  weakening  unto  death  because  the  air  they 
breathed  was  unfit  to  support  life,  of  food  pur- 
chased at  cheaper  and  cheaper  prices  until  that 
finally  used  was  little  better  than  poison  to  those 
who  ate  it,  of  poverty  induced  by  payments  de- 
ferred, of  the  wretchedness  and  semi-starvation 
that  exist  through  some  of  the  long  strikes  of 
some  of  the  laboring  classes  ;  but  none  of  it  fully 
equals  the  truth.  There  are  happy,  virtuous, 
well-fed,  well-clothed  families  in  tenement  houses, 
and  it  is  probably  fair  to  say  that  these  are  per- 
haps in  the  majority,  but  the  ^minority  is  so 
numerous  that  the  heart  is  appalled  at  contem- 
plating it.  Out  of  their  wretched  homes  these 
people  cannot  go.  There  is  no  other  place  for 
them.  While  a  man  and  his  wife  are  young  and 
before  they  have  children,  they  may  roam  about 
if  they  choose  as  tramps  in  pleasant  summer 
weather,  until  some  happy  chance  finds  work  for 
one  or  the  other  in  the  rural  districts.  But  once 
anchored  in  the  city  by  a  family  of  children,  and 
the  opportunities  of  the  laboring  man  of  small 
income  to  ever  change  his  condition  are  almost 
nothing.  Some  men  say  that  the  influence  of 


436  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

religion  is  declining.  The  strongest  refutation, 
and  an  absolute  one,  of  this  statement  is  that  the 
miserable  people  in  large  cities  do  not  arise  in 
frenzied  mobs  and  destroy  everything  which  they 
cannot  steal.  The  long,  patient  and  then  de- 
spairing struggle  against  the  inevitable  is  enough 
to  reduce  any  man  to  frenzy,  were  it  not,  as  Long- 
fellow says,  that  poverty 

"Crushes  into  dumb  despair 
One-half  the  human  race." 

It  nevertheless  is  true  that  as  large  a  propor- 
tion of  these  people  as  of  any  other  class  in  the 
city  are  religious  by  instinct,  training  and  prac- 
tice. The  churches  which  they  attend  are  more 
crowded  on  Sundays  than  those  of  the  better 
classes,  and  the  painter  who  wishes  to  find  models 
of  patience  and  resignation  and  determination  can 
find  them  better  at  the  doors  of  these  churches 
than  anywhere  else  in  the  world. 

Still  the  misery  goes  on.  It  increases.  The 
tenement-house  population  grows  larger  and 
larger  every  year.  The  accommodations  become 
smaller  because  the  tendency  of  the  rents  of  such 
property  is  steadily  upward.  There  is  no  way 
of  escape.  Little  by  little  the  parents  of  the 
family  of  young  children  prevail  upon  themselves 
to  allow  children  to  help  support  the  family. 
There  is  no  cruelty  about  it  in  the  intention  of 
the  parents.  The  children  have  little  enough  to 


OUR  CITIES.  437 

interest  them.  Their  parents  are  too  busy  to  talk 
with  them  or  answer  any  of  their  questions. 
During  the  day  the  children  are  in  the  way,  and 
to  the  father  and  mother  comes  the  suggestion 
that  if  the  entire  family  were  at  work  together 
there  might  be  a  closer  family  life.  The  children 
are  quite  willing  to  take  part  in  whatever  their 
parents  are  doing.  Indeed,  it  is  hard  to  keep 
them  from  doing  so.  So  the  transition  for  chil- 
dren from  utter  indolence  to  child  labor  is  very 
short  and  easy. 

There  are  a  great  many  businesses  in  a  large 
city  in  which  children  may  help  their  parents. 
Among  these,  the  most  prominent  probably  will 
be  found  among  the  clothing  manufacturers 
and  the  makers  of  that  much-abused  article,  the 
tenement-house  cigar.  It  isn't  necessary  for  the 
reader  to  be  frightened  at  the  idea  that  cigars  are 
made  in  tenement-houses,  because  a  respectable 
man  or  woman  with  their  children  are  less  likely 
to  have  any  habits  or  surroundings  which  will 
make  the  tobacco  leaf  deleterious  than  the  work- 
man in  any  famous  factory  in  Havana.  There 
are  diseases  among  the  operatives  in  Cuban 
cigar  factories  of  which  the  less  said  the  better. 
Whatever  other  ailments  there  may  be  in  tene- 
ment-house life,  these  particular  diseases  are  not 
to  be  found  there.  Nevertheless  the  idea  of  a 
man  and  woman  and  several  children  working 
ten  or  twelve  or  fourteen  hours  a  day  in  a  room 


438  OUR  COUNTRY'S   FUTURE. 

ten  feet  square  with,  a  lot  of  decaying  vegetable 
matter — which  is  exactly  what  leaf  tobacco  in  the 
course  of  manufacture  really  is— to  pollute  the 
atmosphere  about  them,  is  not  a  pleasant  thing. 
Tobacco  has  powerful  medicinal  qualities,  most 
of  which  are  of  a  poisonous  nature.  A  small 
amount  of  nicotine,  the  essential  principle  of  to- 
bacco, has  been  powerfully  effective  either  as  a 
narcotic,  or  stimulant,  or  a  germicide.  The  effect 
upon  persons  who  handle  it  incessantly  during  a 
full  half  of  every  day  can  consequently  be  imag- 
ined. Every  one  in  the  room  becomes  irritable 
unless  the  food  supply  is  abundant  and  care- 
fully selected ;  every  one  finally  becomes  ex- 
tremely nervous.  Men  and  women  do  not  well 
endure  the  life  of  tobacco  manufacturers.  To 
children  the  constant  handling  of  the  leaf  is 
frequently  poisonous.  Nevertheless,  a  certain 
amount  of  money  ought  to  be  earned  ever}'-  day 
by  the  family ;  the  father  and  mother  are  not 
able  to  do  it ;  the  children  help  ;  the  family  earn- 
ings are  as  much  for  the  child's  sake  as  for  the 
parents,  and  so  the  work  goes  on. 

In  the  manufacture  of  clothing  the  details,  so 
far  as  they  affect  human  life,  are  not  so  injurious. 
But  one  commercial  result  is  always  perceptible 
in  a  short  time.  Those  operatives  who  can  avail 
themselves  of  child  labor  are  enabled  to  underbid 
their  associates,  who  are  also  their  competitors. 
Consequently  it  is  a  very  short  time  before  the 


OUR   CITIES.  439 

income  of  the  family  is  no  larger  than  it  already 
had  been,  while  the  number  of  persons  occupied 
in  earning  it  has  doubled  and  perhaps  trebled. 

Just  think  a  moment  what  all  this  really  im- 
plies. A  number  of  people  are  excluded  from 
all  possibility  of  exercise  or  recreation  and  excit- 
ing themselves  to  the  utmost  to  accomplish  a 
given  amount  of  work  in  a  specified  time.  Chil- 
dren are  quicker  than  grown  people  to  respond 
to  any  exciting  influence,  and  the  most  enthusi- 
astic workers  in  tenement-house  rooms  will 
always  be  found  to  be  the  children.  Sometimes 
this  amuses  the  parents,  occasionally  it  interests 
them,  but  more  often  it  is  extremely  pathetic. 
To  see  a  child  at  an  early  age  absorbed  in  the 
details  of  the  battle  of  life  would  horrify  any  one 
of  us,  yet  100,000  children  of  this  kind  can  be 
found  in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  a  large  num- 
ber of  them  can  be  found  in  any  one  of  forty 
or  fifty  specified  blocks. 

There  is  only  one  end  to  this  sort  of  thing. 
Persistent  stimulation  and  entire  lack  of  recrea- 
tion or  exercise  must  have  a  debasing  and  dan- 
gerous effect  upon  any  physique.  Much  more 
must  this  be  the  case  regarding  children.  Boys 
and  girls  are  not  driven  to  work  as  they  were  in 
England  forty  or  fifty  years  ago.  They  are  not 
flogged  if  they  do  not  accomplish  a  certain 
amount  of  work  in  a  given  time,  as  they  used  to 
be  under  the  good  old  English  -customs.  But  they 


440          OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

are  just  as  thoroughly  destroyed,  physically  and 
mentally,  as  if  they  were  under  task-masters 
who  were  not  their  own  parents. 

Children  in  the  country  frequently  work  very 
hard.  A  farmer's  life  is  hard  at  best,  and  be- 
tween necessity  and  sympathy  his  children  early 
learn  to  take  part  in  their  father's  endeavors. 
They  rise  early  in  the  morning  and  work  per- 
haps quite  late  in  the  night,  but  they  are  in 
pure  air  even  while  they  are  at  work.  They 
have  an  abundance  of  food  and  they  always  see 
something  before  them,  just  as  their  parents  do. 
Perhaps  it  is  that  there  is  a  war  abroad  and  the 
price  of  wheat  will  probably  go  up  a  few  cents 
a  bushel.  Or  a  railroad  is  coming  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  farm,  and  acres  which  have  been  devoted 
to  common  crops  and  pasture  are  expected  sud- 
denly to  attain  to  the  dignity  of  town  lots. 
There  are  evening  festivities  in  which  all  the 
children  take  part,  and  there  is  also  the  great 
and  comforting  and  uplifting  American  senti- 
ment that  each  one  of  them  is  as  good  as  any 
one  of  their  richest  neighbors,  and  the  fact  that 
they  may  live  in  a  pporly-built  house  and  not 
wear  quite  as  good  clothes  on  Sunday  as  some 
of  their  associates  can  always  be  overlooked 
in  view  of  the  possibilities  of  the  near  future. 
But  before  the  children  of  the  poor  in  the  large 
cities  there  is  no  prospect  whatever  of  advance- 
ment or  pleasure  or  recreation.  The  old  dull 


OUR  CITIES.  441 

grind  goes  on  day  by  day.  While  every  one  is 
well  and  every  one  is  at  work,  the  family  probably 
has  enough  to  eat  and  has  a  roof  over  its  head; 
and  to  that  extent  it  can  congratulate  itself, 
for  some  of  their  acquaintances  and  neighbors 
are  not  so  well  off.  But  the  first  day  that 
sickness  comes  into  the  family  the  entire  aspect 
of  things  changes.  The  work  must  go  on  or 
there  will  be  nothing  to  live  on  at  the  end  of 
the  week.  The  invalid  may  be  put  to  bed  in 
one  of  the  little  closets  which  are  dignified  by 
the  name  of  rooms,  but  the  adult  members  of 
the  family  must  continue  to  work,  and  so  must 
all  who  are  old  enough  to  assist.  If  there  is 
a  sewing-machine  in  the  room  it  must  go  on 
clicking,  no  matter  if  some  member  of  the  family 
is  dying.  There  is  no  lack  of  sympathy,  no 
lack  of  affection,  no  lack  of  longing;  but  all 
these  put  together  do  not  take  the  place  of  proper 
medical  attendance,  pure  air  and  good  food.  If 
in  any  single  town  of  the  United  States  the  death 
rate  were  as  large  as  it  is  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  the  best  citizens  would  pack  up  their  things 
and  run  away,  no  matter  at  what  cost.  But 
New  York  can  lose  thirty  or  forty  of  every 
thousand  of  its  inhabitants  every  year,  and  the 
only  comment  of  those  who  know  best  about  it 
is  that  it  is  a  mercy  of  heaven  that  the  loss  is  no 
greater. 

The  customary  way  of  city  people,  in  avoiding 


442          OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

responsibility  and  deep  thought  on  this  subject, 
consists  in  saying  that  the  people  who  live  in 
this  way  are  of  low  organizations  any  way,  and 
that  they  can  exist  and  flourish  and  grow  fat 
amid  surroundings  which  would  kill  any  decent 
person.  There  is  some  truth  in  this  so  far  as 
certain  low  organizations  are  concerned.  Unfor- 
tunately, however,  there  is  no  race,  sex,  nation- 
ality or  creed  among  the  very  poor  in  the  large 
city.  All  of  them  are  people  who  either  were 
born  very  poor  or  who,  having  been  reduced  to 
poverty,  are  endeavoring  to  make  the  best  of  their 
lot.  There  are  Americans  of  good  name  and 
good  family  now  serving  in  the  commoner  me- 
chanical capacities  in  the  city  of  New  York,  and 
only  a  little  while  ago  it  was  discovered  that  the 
wife  of  a  gallant  Major-General,  who  served  the 
United  States  faithfully  during  the  late  unpleas- 
antness, was  "  living  out "  as  a  domestic  servant. 
It  is  not  a  result  of  poverty,  misfortune,  sickness 
or  anything  of  the  kind.  All  those  horrors  are 
the  results,  first  of  all,  of  city  life,  of  living 
where  no  one  knows  his  own  neighbors  and  where 
the  person  who  falls  into  embarrassments  or  is 
overwhelmed  by  misfortune  has  no  one  to  whom 
to  turn,  and  takes  to  anything  at  short  notice  and 
in  utter  desperation,  to  keep  the  wolf  from  the 
door. 

Cities  should  be  suppressed,  but  that  is  impos- 
sible.    They  should  be  properly  policed  by  per- 


OUR   CITIES.  443 

sons  competent  to  discover  and  report  those  most 
in  need  of  assistance ;  but  that  also  seems  im- 
possible. The  only  chance  left  seems  to  be  that 
the  larger  the  city  the  greater  shall  be  the  mis- 
sionary work  done  in  it  by  all  denominations. 
When  Jesus  was  alive  and  was  anxious  to  secure 
the  attention  of  the  people,  he  did  not  bemoan 
their  sad  condition,  but  on  one  occasion,  when 
some  thousands  of  them  followed  him,  he  him- 
self supplied  them  with  food.  ^The  servant  is 
not  greater  than  the  master,  and  religious  people, 
regardless  of  differences  of  creed,  can  find  no 
better  work  in  large  cities  than  to  search  out  the 
needy  and  endeavor  to  lift  their  feet  out  of  the 
mire  and  put  them  in  a  dry  place,  to  quote  from 
the  inspired  psalmist  in  one  of  his  most  eloquent 
passages. 

One  good  and  pressing  reason — though  a 
selfish  one — for  closer  and  more  sympathetic 
attention  to  the  poor  of  large  cities,  is  that  the 
great  mass  of  criminals  come  from  the  poorer 
classes,  and  that  when  criminals  are  once  made 
it  is  hard  to  unmake  them.  The  famous  Inspec- 
tor Byrne,  of  New  York,  the  man  most  feared 
by  wrongdoers  everywhere,  spends  annually  a 
great  deal  of  his  hard-earned  money  in  trying  to 
persuade  criminals  not  to  drop  back  into  their 
old  ways,  but  he  believes  that  he  only  retards 
their  return  to  crime — not  that  he  effects  any 
reformations.  The  following  words  from  a  man 


444  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

of  his  stern  experience  and  sympathetic  nature 
are  terrible  in  their  warning  against  neglect  of 
the  class  from  which  most  criminals  spring : 

"  My  personal  opinion  is  that  it  is  utterly  im- 
possible to  reform  criminals.  There  are  certain 
fancy  measures  pursued  in  this  city  for  the 
reformation  of  criminals,  but  they  are  all  bosh  ; 
they  do  not  reform  the  outlaws.  To  some  extent 
such  efforts  are  made  for  the  purpose  of  public 
notoriety.  I  know  people  in  this  city  who  claim 
that  they  want  to  reform  thieves.  They  get 
hold  of  notorious  scoundrels  when  they  come  out 
of  state-prison,  and  so  long  as  the  thief  is  a  good 
1  star-actor,'  and  goes  from  place  to  place  and 
tells  all  sorts  of  things  that  are  villanous  and 
bad  about  himself  (no  matter  whether  they  be 
lies  or  the  truth),  he  is  lauded  around  by  these 
people  as  a  great  attraction.  The  moment  he 
discontinues  that  kind  of  performance  they 
throw  him  out  in  the  street  because  he  is  of  no 
use  to  them  ;  he  doesn't '  draw.' 

"  So  far  as  the  efforts  of  religious  people  are 
concerned  in  this  matter  of  criminal  reformation, 
I  say  that  their  efforts  are  laudable.  They  cer- 
tainly mean  well.  They  devote  time  and  money 
to  the  work ;  but  they  have  no  practical  experi- 
ence with  criminals,  and  their  efforts  count  for 
very  little.  It  is  sometimes  claimed  that,  under 
the  influence  of  prayers  and  preaching,  the  crim- 
inal's heart  is  touched,  he  sees  the  error  of  his 


INSPECTOR  BYRNES. 


OUR   CITIES.  445 

ways,  he  is  converted ;  I  do  not  believe  it.  As 
the  word  '  reformation '  is  ordinarily  used,  I 
know  there  is  no  such  experience  among 
thieves." 

It  will  not  do  to  dispose  of  the  subject  by 
saying  that  there  must  be  criminals  in  the  world, 
and  that  we  pay  policemen  to  take  care  of  them. 
No  police  force  can  entirely  suppress  crime  ;  there 
are  too  many  evil-doers  to  be  watched,  and  each 
has  his  own  style.  Inspector  Williams,  of  New 
York,  an  officer  almost  as  widely  known  as 
Inspector  Byrne,  and  who  has  had  charge  of  the 
most  dangerous  precincts  in  the  city,  wrote  re- 
cently : 

'  The  general  public,  who  look  upon  criminals 
as  a  class  by  themselves,  are  apt  to  think  that 
one  criminal  is  very  much  like  another.  This  is 
not  a  fact.  I  have  been  a  policeman  for  nearly  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  and  I  have  never  seen  two 
criminals  who  were  very  nearly  alike  in  charac- 
ter. A  Siamese-twinship  in  the  annals  of  crime 
is  unknown.  When  we  enter  the  criminal 
world  and  seek  to  deal  with  its  members  from 
any  point  of  view,  we  must  look  upon  them  indi- 
vidually, not  collectively." 

All  of  which  means  that  the  only  way  to 
lessen  the  number  of  criminals  is  to  see  to  it  that 
wretchedness  of  the  masses  of  population  in  our 
large  cities  shall  not  be  allowed  to  send  new 
recruits  to  the  ranks. 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 

RELIGION. 

OURS  is  the  most  religious  country  on  the  face 
of  the  earth.  There  are  more  churches  to  the 
square  mile  of  city  and  village  area  than  any 
other  part  of  the  world,  not  excepting  the  grand 
old  city  of  Rome.  They  may  not  be  all  of  the 
same  denomination,  but  their  attendants  worship 
the  same  God.  They  may  quarrel  a  great  deal 
about  points  of  faith,  but  on  essentials  they  are, 
if  not  exactly  one,  so  closely  related  that  there  is 
room  for  any  amount  of  hope.  About  baptism 
and  regeneration  and  sanctification  and  adoption 
and  perhaps  damnation  they  may  differ  fright- 
fully ;  but  all  of  them  base  their  belief  upon  the 
Apostles'  Creed,  and  look  for  their  spiritual  in- 
spiration to  the  law  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment, preferably  that  of  the  four  gospels. 

Religion  is  a  life,  whatever  else  it  may  or  may 
not  be.  No  person  who  makes  any  pretence  of 
being  religious  declines  to -admit  that  his  creed  is 
the  basis  of  the  life  which  he  would  like  to  lead, 
whether  or  not  he  may  succeed  in  making  his 
practice  conform  to  his  principles. 

(446) 


REV.  T.  DEWITT  TALMAGE. 


RELIGION.  447 

That  religion  consists  in  proper  life  with  a 
view  to  a  life  to  corne,  or  at  least  that  it  is  so  re- 
garded, is  proved  by  the  custom  which  becomes 
more  and  more  prevalent  of  judging  men  and 
women  according  to  their  religious  professions. 

There  was  a  time  when,  if  a  man  assented  to 
a  given  form  of  faith,  his  life  might  be  almost 
anything  he  pleased ;  and  some  of  the  most  ac- 
tive "  Defenders  of  the  Faith,"  as  they  styled 
themselves,  whether  they  were  Catholics,  Prot- 
estants, Trinitarians  or  Unitarians,  have  been 
found  among  men  who  would  nowadays  not  be 
considered  fit  to  introduce  into  respectable  society. 
The  time  when  such  things  were  has  departed, 
and  shows  not  the  faintest  sign  of  ever  returning 
again.  To-day  a  man's  religious  profession  is  re- 
garded as  an  assertion  by  himself  of  what  he 
would  have  his  life,  and  what  he  proposes  that 
his  life  shall  be  judged  by. 

A  cheering  sign  of  the  earnestness  and  sin- 
cerity of  religion  in  modern  times  is  that  there 
is  very  little  proselyting  now.  People  who  smile 
cheerfully  at  one  another  during  six  days  of  the 
week,  do  not  glare  and  frown  at  one  another  on 
Sunday,  as  they  used  to  do  when  meeting  on 
their  ways  to  their  respective  churches,  and  from 
the  manners  of  members  of  different  denomina- 
tions meeting  in  business  or  polite  society,  no  one 
could  imagine  or  discern  to  what  particular  creed 
any  one  of  those  people  subscribed.  The  Meth- 


448  OUR  COUNTRY'S   FUTURE. 

odist,  the  Baptist,  the  Catholic,  the  Episcopalian, 
meet  each  other  cheerily  in  business  and  in  so- 
ciety, their  families  intermarry,  they  have  busi- 
ness relations  with  each  other,  and  no  one  in  in- 
dorsing or  cashing  a  business  man's  note  ever 
thinks  of  asking  to  what  particular  church  he 
may  belong. 

In  a  number  of  country  towns  this  fraternal 
feeling  has  been  largely  stimulated  and  strength- 
ened by  what  are  called  "  union  meetings,"  in 
which  all  the  members-  of  all  the  congregations 
in  the  town  unite  at  appointed  dates  in  general 
services  of  prayer  and  worship.  Occasionally 
the  pastor  of  some  church  in  the  vicinity  may 
object  to  taking  part  in  such  services,  but  pastors 
in  congregations  are  frequently  like  Congressmen 
and  the  people — the  followers  are  ahead  of  the 
leader.  Only  a  little  while  ago  a  Catholic  priest 
of  high  repute  in  his  own  denomination,  and  held 
in  high  esteem  by  the  entire  community  in  which 
he  was  known,  ascended  the  platform  at  a  west- 
ern camp-meeting,  in  which  denominations  differ- 
ing from  his  own  had  united,  and  made  a  most 
earnest  undenominational  and  spiritual  address 
to  the  entire  audience  before  him. 

Revival  meetings,  however  they  may  be  laughed 
at  by  the  more  refined  and  fastidious  of  church 
people,  have  had  the  effect  in  late  years  of  at- 
tracting a  great  many  thousands  of  people  toward 
religious  life.  The  most  noted  of  these  were 


RELIGION.  449 

conducted,  as  every  one  knows,  by  Messrs. 
Moody  and  Sankey,  two  men  who  were  never 
regularly  ordained  as  clergymen  by  any  author- 
ity whatever — they  are  simple  laymen  and  un- 
denominational workers.  Yet  these  men  never 
went  to  any  city  or  town  to  begin  their  peculiar 
system  of  work  until  all,  or  nearly  all,  the  pas- 
tors of  churches  had  united  in  calling  them  and 
had  promised  to  assist  to  the  best  of  their  ability. 
No  effort  was  made  by  these  men  to  make  con- 
verts for  any  denomination  whatever.  Their 
sole  purpose  was  to  cause  men  and  women  to 
change  their  manner  of  life  from  that  of  the  or- 
dinary every-day  selfishness  of  the  unregenerate 
man  and  to  compel  him  to  recognize  an  over-rul- 
ing Providence  who  should  also  be  the  guide  of 
his  daily  life  in  every  respect.  Mr.  Moody, 
however  "  shaky  "  he  may  have  been  according 
to  any  theological  test,  was  earnest  and  sincere 
enough  to  say  to  all  the  clerical  fraternity  of  any 
town  in  which  he  worked,  that  he  came  only  to 
sow  seed  and  that  it  was  the  business  of  others 
to  reap  the  harvest,  and  that  he  cared  not  into 
whose  flock  the  lambs  were  led,  so  long  as  they 
were  rescued  from  the  wilderness.  The  Moody 
and  Sankey  movement  is  open  to  a  great  deal  of 
criticism,  and  probably  no  one  has  regarded  it 
with  more  jealous  eye  than  newspaper  editors, 
yet  the  editorial  fraternity  throughout  the  coun- 
try has  been  compelled  to  admit  that  the  agita- 


450  OUR   COUNTRY'S   FUTURE. 

tion  begun  by  these  meu  had  a  marked  influence 
for  good  on  whatever  community  it  was  exerted. 

Such  a  movement  would  have  been  utterly  im- 
possible fifty  years  ago,  perhaps  twenty-five  years 
ago.  To  attempt  to  lead  men  to  God  without 
outlining  a  road  which  traversed  a  great  many 
other  roads  said  to  lead  in  the  same  direction 
would  have  united  against  the  leader  all  the 
churches  in  the  vicinity. 

There  are  no  fights  between  denominations 
now-a-days.  A  church  may  fight  within  its  own 
borders  as  furiously  as  a  gang  of  worried  dogs, 
but  for  the  occupants  of  several  different  pulpits 
in  any  given  town  or  in  any  portion  of  a  great 
city  to  call  each  other  bad  names  and  intimate 
that  the  followers  of  any  one  but  the  speaker 
would  find  themselves  after  death  in  a  most  un- 
comfortable and  irremediable  condition  of  soul 
and  body  is  no  longer  the  case.  The  principal 
feeling  now  excited  by  large  success  in  any  par- 
ticular congregation  is  one  of  emulation.  If  one 
church  holds  a  successful  mission  or  revival 
meeting  or  series  of  special  efforts,  and  succeeds 
in  persuading  a  number  of  people  to  enroll  them- 
selves formally  among  any  band  of  persons  pro- 
fessing to  be  Christians,  the  only  competitive 
result  that  can  be  seen  or  heard  of  is  an  effort 
of  the  neighboring  churches  to  go  and  do  like- 
wise. 

Why,  it  is  no  longer  necessary  for  churches  to 


RELIGION.  451 

be  built  solely  by  those  who  are  members  of  the 
congregation  which  is  endeavoring  to  erect  the 
edifice.  A  subscription  for  the  building  fund  of 
a  church  of  any  denomination  is  passed  around 
among  people  of  all  faiths  and  no  faith,  and 
money  is  subscribed  as  freely  and  as  unreservedly 
as  if  the  effort  was  being  made  simply  for  the 
relief  of  some  individual  in  embarrassment.  It 
has  come  to  be  considered  in  the  United  States 
that  a  church,  no  matter  of  what  denomination, 
is  a  good  thing  to  have  in  the  neighborhood,  and 
the  more  churches  the  better.  Any  man  of  pub- 
lic spirit  or  Christian  feeling  who  has  any  money 
to  spare  can  be  depended  upon  to  subscribe  to  the 
erection  of  a  church  of  any  denomination,  the 
Mormon  church  always  excepted. 

All  this  is  immensely  encouraging  to  men  who 
regard  religion  as  the  greatest  moral  influence  of 
life,  as  well  as  a  promise  of  things  less  seen  yet 
more  important  in  which  the  majority  of  people 
believe  more  or  less  blindly.  The  change  has 
come  about  through  the  different  pulpit  method 
that  has  come  in  vogue  within  a  very  few  years. 
Men  have  learned  to  look  upon  religion  of  any 
kind  as  infinitely  preferable  to  no  religion  at  all. 
No  man  who  keeps  his  eyes  open  has  failed  to 
see  changes,  such  as  can  be  accounted  for  by  no 
other  theory,  as  to  the  possibilities  of  human 
nature,  suddenly  and  quietly  achieved  through 
the  practice  of  religious  life  as  indicated  by  some 


452  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

particular  creed.  So  far  as  changes  in  the  lives 
of  individuals  are  concerned,  creed  seems  to  make 
very  little  difference.  Within  the  lines  of  all 
denominations  men  can  be  found  who,  according 
to  every  rule  and  precedent  of  human  nature, 
should  be  dishonest,  indolent,  vile,  and  brutal, 
yet  who  have  suddenly  become  respectable  and 
in  all  things  visible  entirely  decent.  Any  at- 
tempts to  break  down  religion,  as  such,  are  stoutly 
combated  by  the  entire  intelligent  portion  of  the 
community,  barring  the  few  dilettanti  who  are 
not  certain  about  anything,  and  least  of  all  about 
whatever  will  make  themselves  amenable  to  the 
moral  law.  Colonel  Bob  Ingersoll  can  draw  a 
large  crowd  in  a  large  city,  but  never  in  his  life 
has  he  had  as  large  an  audience  as  can  be  found 
a.ny  Sunday  in  any  one  of  twenty  churches  in 
the  city  of  New  York,  and  were  he  to  enter  some 
of  our  smaller  towns  he  would  find  himself  with 
the  same  proportion  of  hearers.  Most  religious 
people  who  think — and  most  of  them  do  think — 
have  periods  of  doubt  on  a  great  many  topics 
which  in  the  earlier  portion  of  their  new  life 
seemed  to  them  essentials.  Nevertheless  they 
have  learned  by  experience  not  to  change  their 
faith,  much  less  to  abandon  it,  because  of  some 
things  which  they  do  not  understand.  Since  re- 
ligion has  become  a  life  instead  of  a  mere  belief, 
all  men  who  sincerely  practice  it  have  learned 
that  there  is  a  great  iinknown  of  human  expe- 


RELIGION.  453 

rience  beyond  which  their  own  lives  cannot  reach 
except  at  certain  times  and  under  certain  influ- 
ences, and  to  abandon  what  they  doubt  would 
mean  to  them  to  also  forego  the  fruits  of  what 
they  already  know  and  believe. 

There  is  not  the  slightest  fear  that  the  United 
States  will  become  an  irreligious  nation.  Some 
church  pews  may  be  empty,  some  men  may  go 
very  seldom  to  service,  or  .confession,  but  that 
most  men  think  and  feel  the  influence  of  religion 
upon  the  young  and  upon  the  family  circle  is  too 
well  known  and  established  to  admit  of  any 
doubt.  The  heads  of  families  who  are  most 
careless  about  their  own  personal  lives  are  often 
most  earnest  in  urging  upon  their  families  all 
the  ministrations  of  whatever  churches  they  may 
chance  to  attend.  It  matters  no  longer  from 
what  denomination  is  selected  the  clergyman  who 
shall  ask  grace  at  a  large  public  dinner,  or  open 
a  solemn  public  gathering  with  prayer,  or  as  to 
what  may  be  the  creed  of  the  spiritual  teacher 
who  may  be  asked  to  take  part  in  deliberations 
upon  grave  moral  interests  of  the  community. 

All  this  is  immensely  encouraging,  and  prom- 
ises lasting  good  to  the  nation. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

CHURCH   WORK. 

Laborare  est  orare — "  to  work  is  to  pray  " — as 
good  St.  Augustine  said. 

The  best  proof  that  the  good  saint  was  right 
is  that  the  most  successful  churches  nowadays 
are  those  that  do  most  work. 

Rev.  Russell  H.  Conwell,  pastor  of  a  working 
church  of  the  Baptist  denomination  in  Philadel- 
phia, says  :  "A  house  of  worship  is  a  hall,  or  barn, 
or  tomb,  with  no  workers  in  it.  Idleness  is  gloom, 
dampness  death.  Push  every  church  member, 
or  pull  him,  into  some  work.  Pile  it  about  him 
and  on  him.  Let  him  dig  out  and  he  will  be  a 
healthy  Christian.  But  you  need  to  keep  him 
digging  out.  The  more  he  does  in  consistent 
benevolence  in  any  direction  the  happier  and 
more  prosperous  he  is.  I  try  to  get  every  mem- 
ber of  the  church  to  work  for  some  special  mis- 
sionary or  charitable  enterprise,  and  the  more  he 
works  for  that  the  more  he  is  able  and  disposed 
to  give  to  the  church.  Once  in  a  while  one 
finds  a  member  so  selfish  and  lazy  that  it  takes 
a  whole  Dorcas  society  to  pull  a  two-cent  piece 

(454) 


REV.  RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL. 


CHURCH   WORK.  455 

out  of  his  pocket.  But  lie  must  be  made  to  give 
it  for  his  own  growth  in  grace.  His  heart  will 
go  with  the  two-cent  piece,  and  his  hands  will 
work.  Then  he  will  be  a  valuable  church  mem- 
ber and  a  good  citizen.  A  church  should  be  a 
bundle  of  missionary  societies  in  order  to  be 
prosperous,  united  and  spiritual.  Work  is  the 
wise  man's  play.  Wide,  helpful  sympathy  is  the 
magnet  to  draw  men  and  God." 

Church  work  used  to  be  addressed  entirely  to 
the  soul;  nowadays  it  takes  considerable  notice 
of  the  human  body,  and,  according  to  a  pretty 
good  authority,  to  wit,  St.  Paul,  the  body  is  the 
temple  of  the  living  God.  Consequently  church 
work  has  made  a  decided  step  forward  in  the 
right  direction. 

In  old  times  a  large  congregation  was  proof 
that  a  pulpit  orator  of  great  ability  or  renown 
was  the  centre  of  attraction.  Nowadays  the 
largest  congregations  are  found  where  there  is 
most  work  being  done  in  the  direction  of  improv- 
ing mankind,  and  reaching  the  soul  through  the 
body. 

The  live  churches  almost  everywhere  can  be 
discovered  at  once  by  asking  in  which  congrega- 
tions the  greatest  amount  of  what  is  called  out- 
side work  is  being  done.  Very  often  the  pastor 
is  not  an  orator  at  all,  and  his  sermons  are  the 
simplest  of  homilies,  and  yet  the  pews  are 
crowded,  and  nobody  makes  the  common  and 


456  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

somewhat  scandalous  criticism  that  only  women 
go  to  church.  In  working  churches  men  are  as 
numerous  as  women,  and  the  hardest-headed  of 
business  men  are  among  the  most  constant  of  the 
attendants.  Comparisons  maybe  odious,  yet  for 
sake  of  illustration  it  may  be  said  that  such 
dissimilar  men  as  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  Dr. 
John  Hall,  Rev.  Dr.  Rainsford,  Wayland  Hoyt, 
Russell  H.  Conwell,  Edward  Everett  Hale,  Father 
Fransioli  and  Felix  Adler  talk  every  Sunday  to 
enormous  congregations.  Some  of  these  men 
are  genuine  pulpit  orators,  but  more  of  them  are 
not.  The  centre  of  attraction  is  the  great  human 
soul  and  human  interest  of  the  man  who,  in 
spite  of  unusual  spirituality,  has  also  a  practical 
eye  to  the  welfare,  temporal  as  well  as  spiritual,  of 
his  entire  congregation. 

Rev.  Wayland  Hoyt  says :  "Aside  from  the 
influence  of  its  regularly  recurring  services, 
what  is  the  Church  doing  for  the  people,  even  for 
those  who  may  not  mingle  much  with  its  throng 
of  worshippers  ?  The  Church  is  doing  things 
like  these  among  multitudes  of  other  things : 

"  First.  Amid  the  material  the  Church  is  as- 
serting the  fact  and  presence  of  the  spiritual. 
It  will  not  let  men  lose  the  thought  of  some- 
thing higher  and  nobler  than  the  common  round 
of  getting,  spending,  eating,  sleeping.  Simply 
by  its  presence  it  appeals  to  and  awakens  the 
moral  consciousness.  Even  the  most  sodden 


REV.  WAYLAND  HOYT. 


CHURCH   WORK.  457 

man  must  find,  every  now  and  then,  reproof  for 
his  soddenness,  as  he  stumbles,  as  he  must, 
against  the  Church.  Nothing  can  be  more 
gracious  and  benignant  than  this  steady  minis- 
try to  the  spiritual  in  men,  and  this  compulsion 
to,  at  least  slight,  thought  of  the  reality  of  it. 

"  Secondly.  The  Church  is  the  conserver  of  the 
Sabbath.  It  is  because  churches  are  that  the 
Sabbath  is.  What  prevents  the  Sabbath,  with 
its  periodical  rest  and  chance  for  thought  of 
higher  things,  and  its  sheathing  of  the  sword  of 
unremitting  toil,  from  drifting  swiftly  and  utterly 
away  upon  the  mighty  current  of  the  world's 
business  and  pleasure,  is  the  anchor  of  the 
Church. 

'  Thirdly.  The  church  is  the  fontal  spring  of 
all  kindly  charities,  for  it  is  in  the  Church  that 
men  are  taught  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  so 
the  brotherhood  of  men.  Blot  out  these  truths 
and  your  world  becomes  but  a  grasping  selfish- 
ness where  the  strong  seize  and  the  weak  are 
crowded  to  the  wall  remorselessly.  The  Great 
Brother  of  us  all  is  the  founder  of  the  Church. 
And  as  long  as  his  church  forbids  that  men  lose 
vision  of  the  pierced  Hand,  that  hand  must 
impel,  and  does,  to  ministry  to  others." 

It  was  once  sneeringly  said  of  Mr.  Frothing- 
ham,  who  in  his  day  was  the  centre  around  which 
all  the  liberals  and  dissatisfied  among  roligious 
people  clustered,  that  he  began  with  a  theology 


458  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

and  ended  with  a  kindergarten,  but  no  man  who 
is  head  of  a  family  could  listen  to  this  charge 
without  protesting  and  exclaiming  that  the  last 
days  of  that  man  were  greater  than  the  first. 
These  men  all  have  realized  that  religion  is  more 
a  life  than  a  belief,  and  a  proof  of  their  sincerity 
is  in  the  effectiveness  of  their  church  work. 

Church  work  takes  in  everybody ;  it  is  one 
of  the  few  nets  that  never  hurt  the  fish.  It 
calls  for  and  obtains  the  sympathy  of  the  people 
of  all  classes  and  every  congregation.  However 
men  may  differ  about  points  of  doctrine — and  all 
intelligent  men  do  differ  on  such  subjects  in  their 
own  minds — there  is  no  difference  of  opinion 
about  what  should  be  done  for  those  who  are 
needy  in  any  respect.  One  famous  old  divine 
of  New  York  was  once  troubled  a  great  deal  by 
what  in  old  times  was  called  a  church  fight. 
Some  of  the  solemn  and  sanctimonious  souls  of 
his  flock  were  given  to  quarrelling  on  single 
points  of  belief  about  which  the  religious  world 
is  still  differing,  and  for  some  years  the  pastor 
suffered  a  great  deal  in  his  endeavors  to  reconcile 
the  conflicting  factions.  But  it  occurred  to  him 
one  day  that  his  best  method  would  be  to  intro- 
duce some  new  interest;  so,  whenever  there  came 
up  a  new  question  of  doctrine,  he  would  call  a 
church  meeting  and  suggest  a  new  plan  of  effort 
for  the  individual  good  of  the  church  and  con- 
gregation. The  warring  factions  laid  aside  their 


REV.  GEORGE  RAINSFORD. 


CHURCH    WORK.  459 

differences  for  the  time  being,  worked  together, 
learned  from  each  other  how  much  good  there  is 
in  humanity  when  the  limits  of  human  intelli- 
gence are  not  exceeded,  and  the  threatening 
fight  ended  about  as  quickly  as  an  April  shower. 

Edward  Everett  Hale,  a  church  worker  of 
national  reputation,  says : 

"  Separation  of  class  from  class,  calling  from 
calling,  race  from  race,  the  parting  of  the  stranger 
from  those  to  the  manner  born,  of  the  ignorant 
from  the  learned,  of  the  rich  from  the  poor,  is 
the  patent  terror  of  city  life,  its  great  misery  and 
disadvantage,  to  be  held  in  mind  as  the  general 
source  of  the  sin,  disease,  and  misery  which  the 
Church  is  appointed  to  remove. 

"  Very  fortunately  for  the  Church  in  her  duty 
in  these  lines,  her  traditions  and  theories  are  all 
right.  Trust  the  Four  Gospels  for  that,  with 
their  unflinching  radicalisms  !  Not  the  grandest 
marble  pile,  of  the  most  exquisite  upholstery, 
and  the  most  comfortable  provision  for  the  luxu- 
rious worship  of  the  rich,  but  pretends  that  these 
accommodations  are  intended  also  for  the  poorest 
and  the  vilest.  Nay,  as  to  the  appointed  minis- 
ters of  that  church,  the  word  *  pretend '  would 
not  be  fair.  They  really  want  that  such  common 
use  of  the  noblest  and  most  beautiful  facilities, 
if  I  may  so  speak,  shall  be  open  to  all.  Nothing 
need  be  said  about  the  improvement  of  the  the- 
ory ;  the  difficulty  is  in  practice.  Let  us,  how- 


460  OUR   COUNTRY'S   FUTURE. 

ever,  once  admit  that  the  difficulty  is  very  great, 
and  is  central,  and  the  fact  that  the  theory  is 
right  is  a  very  great  help  to  us.  While  it  is 
true,  as  it  is  strange,  that  to  a  considerable  ex- 
tent professional  people  go  to  one  church  and 
mechanics  to  another,  and  day-laborers,  if  they 
go  at  all,  to  another,  and  rich  people,  when  they 
go  at  all,  to  yet  another — this  is  not  absolutely 
true.  It  is  true  only  '  to  a  considerable  extent.' 
And,  with  regard  to  other  classifications,  nothing 
of  that  sort  is  true.  Strangers  in  the  town  and 
those  born  in  it  go  to  the  same  church.  Old 
people  and  young  people  go  to  the  same  church. 
Happy  people  and  unhappy  people  go  to  the 
same  church.  People  without  children  and  peo- 
ple with  children  go  to  the  same  church.  So 
that  even  the  existing  life  of  any  church  in  any 
city  now  does  give  opportunities  by  which  all  its 
members  may  go  to  work  to  bridge  the  horrid 
chasms  of  city  life,  and  even  to  fill  them  up. 

"  The  Sunday-school  of  a  church,  its  organized 
charities,  the  accidents  of  meeting  in  the  porch 
and  in  the  pews,  even  the  much-ridiculed  but 
essential  Christian  '  parish  sociable,'  are  all  so 
many  means  by  which  A  and  Z,  B  and  X,  may 
leap  from  their  preordained  place  in  some  formal 
alphabet,  and  come  into  real  communion  and 
vital  sympathy  with  letters  quite  at  the  other 
end  of  the  same  alphabet.  The  Church,  probably, 
is  better  provided,  even  in  its  worst  estate,  with  ihe 


CHURCH    WORK.  461 

machinery  for  bridging  such  gulfs  than   is  any 
other  social  organism  of  our  time" 

The  only  limit  to  effective  church  work  is 
found  in  the  comparatively  small  number  of  pas- 
tors and  other  persons  who  know  how  to  organize 
such  efforts,  in  proof  of  which  let  any  one  go 
through  the  churches  of  any  town  and  note  how 
many  empty  pews  will  be  found.  When  a  com- 
petent worker  is  found  or  discovered,  or  discovers 
himself  in  any  denomination,  the  people  flock 
around  him  at  once  almost  as  people  twenty  cen- 
turies ago  surrounded  Jesus  when  He  was  alive. 
Every  one  depends  upon  the  leader,  and  conse- 
quently the  leader  frequently  finds  himself  un- 
equal to  the  task  which  he  has  set  for  himself. 
Great  church  workers  are  continually  compelled 
to  drop  out  of  harness  and  retire  for  long  periods 
of  rest.  The  inability  of  the  general  mass  of 
religious  people  to  comprehend  that  in  the  out- 
side work  of  the  Church  consists  the  principal 
fulfillment  of  the  injunctions  of  the  Master,  re- 
calls the  saying  of  Jesus  that  the  harvest  verily 
is  abundant  but  the  laborers  are  few.  At  the 
present  time  two  at  least  of  the  well-known  men 
mentioned  above  are  in  unwilling  retirement  on 
account  of  overwork.  One  of  them  a  few  years 
ago  took  a  church  in  which  the  attendants  were 
so  few  that  it  was  almost  dismal  to  go  into  it, 
and  in  a  few  years  it  was  almost  impossible  to 
find  a  seat  in  the  edifice.  People  flocked  about 


462  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

him  and  asked  what  they  were  to  do  to  help  him, 
but  according  to  his  own  statement  not  one  was 
able  to  make  a  suggestion  on  his  own  part.  All 
were  willing  to  follow,  but  none  were  competent 
to  lead. 

At  the  risk  of  offending  some  souls  who  mistake 
doctrine  for  the  whole  of  religion,  it  must  be  said 
in  passing  that  the  best  work  of  this  sort  done  in 
the  United  States,  and  perhaps  anywhere  on  the 
face  of  the  earth,  is  done  by  the  Catholic  Church. 
In  almost  all  other  denominations  the  pastor  is 
alone,  but  in  the  oldest  of  the  Christian  churches 
it  is  the  custom  to  give  assistants  as  fast  as  the 
pastor  requires  it,  and  in  many  a  church,  which 
may  seem  small  to  those  who  do  not  attend  it, 
and  which  worships  perhaps  in  an  humble  edi- 
fice, there  will  be  found  at  the  pastoral  residence 
some  assistants,  all  ordained  clergymen,  who 
help  the  pastor  in  the  unending  round  of  duties 
among  the  sick  and  afflicted  and  poor  and  troubled 
of  the  congregation.  There  is  need  of  similar 
assistance  in  all  Protestant  churches  if  all  the 
work  which  the  founder  of  Christianity  ordered 
is  to  be  properly  done.  The  religious  world  at 
large  is  satisfied  that  the  duty  of  the  Church  is 
not  fulfilled  simply  by  holding  Sunday  services, 
but  those  who  select  the  paid  clergy  have  not 
yet  realized  this  in  its  full  practical  bearing. 
Whenever  it  is  suggested  in  a  large  congrega- 
tion that  the  pastor  should  have  an  assistant 


CHURCH    WORK.  463 

there  is  likely  to  be  a  long  discussion  before  he 
succeeds  in  obtaining  one,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  nearest  Catholic  church  has  probably  two 
or  more  clergymen,  some  one  of  whom  can  always 
be  found  by  any  parishioner  who  is  in  trouble. 
The  Protestant  churches  would  do  well  to  take 
a  leaf  from  the  book  of  their  Catholic  friends. 

As  for  the  range  of  duties  of  the  clergy,  it 
never  has  been  better  outlined  than  in  the  fol- 
lowing paragraphs  from  the  pen  of  Cardinal 
Gibbons : 

"  The  moral  power  exercised  by  a  good  priest 
in  his  parish  is  incalculable.  The  priest  is 
always  a  mysterious  being  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world.  Like  his  Divine  Master,  he  '  is  set  for 
the  fall  and  for  the  resurrection  of  many  in 
Israel,  and  for  a  sign  which  shall  be  contradicted.' 
Various  opinions  are  formed  of  him.  Some  say 
of  him  as  was  said  of  our  Saviour  :  '  He  is  a  good 
man.'  And  others  say :  '  No,  but  he  seduceth 
the  people.'  He  is  loved  most  by  those  who  know 
him  best.  Hated  or  despised  he  may  be  by  many 
that  are  strangers  to  him  and  to  his  sacred  char- 
acter ;  but  he  has  been  too  prominent  a  factor  in 
the  civilization  of  mankind  and  the  advancement 
of  morality  ever  to  be  ignored. 

'  The  life  of  a  missionary  priest  is  never 
written,  nor  can  it  be.  He  has  no  Bos  well.  His 
biographer  may  record  the  priest's  public  and 
official  acts.  He  may  recount  the  churches  he 


464  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

erected,  the  schools  he  founded,  the  works  of 
religion  and  charity  he  inaugurated  and  fostered, 
the  sermons  he  preached,  the  children  he  cate- 
chised, the  converts  he  received  into  the  fold,  and 
this  is  already  a  great  deal.  But  it  only  touches 
upon  the  surface  of  that  devoted  life.  There  is 
no  memoir  of  his  private  daily  life  of  usefulness 
and  of  his  sacred  and  confidential  relations  with 
his  flock.  All  this  is  hidden  with  Christ  in  God, 
and  is  registered  only  by  His  recording  angel. 

"  (  The  civilizing  and  moralizing  influence  of 
the  clergyman  in  his  parish,'  says  Mr.  Lecky, 
'  the  simple,  unostentatious,  unselfish  zeal  with 
which  he  educates  the  ignorant,  guides  the  erring, 
comforts  the  sorrowing,  braves  the  horrors  of 
pestilence,  and  sheds  a  hallowing  influence  over 
the  dying  hour,  the  countless  ways  in  which,  in 
his  little  sphere,  he  allays  evil  passions  and 
softens  manners,  and  elevates  and  purifies  those 
around  him ;  all  these  things,  though  very  evi- 
dent to  the  detailed  observer,  do  not  stand  out  in 
the  same  vivid  prominence  in  historical  records, 
and  are  continually  forgotten  by  historians.' 

"The  priest  is  Christ's  unarmed  officer  of  the 
law.  He  is  more  potent  in  repressing  vice  than 
a  band  of  constables.  His  only  weapon  is  his 
voice ;  his  only  badge  of  authority  his  sacred 
office.  Like  the  fabled  Neptune  putting  Eolus 
to  flight  and  calming  the  troubled  waves,  the 
priest  quiets  many  a  domestic  storm,  subduing 


CARDINAL  GIBBONS. 


CHURCH    WORK.  465 

the  winds  of  passion,  reconciling  the  jarring 
elements  of  strife,  healing  dissensions,  preventing 
divorce,  and  arresting  bloodshed. 

"  He  is  the  daily  depository  of  his  parishioners* 
cares  and  trials,  anxieties  and  fears,  afflictions 
and  temptations,  and  even  of  their  sins.  They 
come  to  him  for  counsel  in  doubt,  for  spiritual 
and  even  temporal  aid.  If  he  cannot  suppress, 
he  has  at  least  the  consolation  of  mitigating  the 
moral  evil  around  him." 

It  is  through  Church  work  alone — not  merely 
the  Sunday  services  of  the  Sanctuary — that 
what  is  called  "  the  Sabbath  question  "  can  ever 
be  settled.  For  many  centuries  the  churches 
have  failed,  through  their  stated  services,  to  in- 
crease respect  for  Sunday  ;  but  here  is  a  "  more 
excellent  way,"  suggested  by  Bishop  H.  C.  Potter, 
of  the  diocese  of  New  York. 

"  No  discussion  of  the  Sunday  question  will 
touch  the  nerve  of  the  matter  that  does  not 
recognize  the  fact  that  if  Sunday,  as  it  at  present 
exists  in  America,  is  to  be  successfully  defended, 
it  must  be  with  the  help  of  others  than  those  only 
who  make  up  what  are  called  the  privileged 
classes.  In  the  present  state  of  public  opinion  it 
is  an  ominous  fact  that  the  working  people,  as  a 
body,  have  in  this  country  shown  no  interest  in 
the  question  on  the  one  side  or  the  other.  Their 
attitude  can  best  be  described  as  one  of  profound 
indifference,  and  though  it  is  true  that  the  re- 

30 


466  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

markable  statistics  of  recent  petitions  presented 
to  Parliament  in  Great  Britain  would  seem  to 
indicate  that  the  sentiment  of  working  people 
was  largely  against  any  relaxation  of  the  Sunday 
laws,*  we  have  no  such  statistics  to  which  to 
appeal  in  America.  Including,  as  do  our  working 
classes,  especially  in  cities,  a  large  foreign  element, 
educated  in,  or  with  traditions  derived  from,  Ger- 
many and  other  countries  of  Continental  Europe, 
it  is  probable  that  if  any  expression  of  opinion 
could  be  obtained  it  would  be  less  favorable  to 
the  present  Sunday  restrictions  than  in  England. 
People  who  come  from  Berlin,  Hamburg,  Vienna, 
and  the  cities  of  Italy  and  France,  in  which  the 
one  distinction  of  Sundays,  in  the  case  of  the 
museums,  is  not  merely  that  they  are  open,  but 
open  without  charge,  may  not  be  safely  counted 
on  to  favor  restrictions  which  seem  to  curtail 
their  own  scanty  privileges  and  to  violate  the 
usage  of  their  own  land. 

"It  is  just  here  that  the  connection  between 
the  labor  question  and  the  Sunday  question  be- 
comes apparent.  If  those  who  are  not  working 
men  would  have  working  men  on  their  side  in 
protecting  Sunday  from  encroachments  which 
mean,  first,  play  for  some,  and  then  by  an  inevi- 

*  In  England,  in  1882,  62  trade  unions  and  other  working  men's 
societies,  representing  45,482  members,  voted  in  favor  of  the  Sunday 
opening  of  museums,  etc.,  while  2,412  societies,  representing  501, 
705  members,  voted  against  such  opening. 


CHURCH   WORK.  467 

table  deterioration,  to  which  in  the  history  of 
European  nations  there  has  been  no  single  ex- 
ception, work  for  almost  all,  theirs  must  be  the 
first  move — not  wrung  from  them  by  the  clamor- 
ous demands  from  the  millions  who  toil,  but 
freely  given  by  them  to  those  whose  lives  are 
starved  of  privilege  and  pleasure — which  shall 
make  Sunday  more  sacred  for  rest,  and  so  for 
those  who  shall  be  minded  to  use  it  for  some- 
thing higher  than  rest,  because  some  other  hours 
than  those  of  Sunday  are  freely  and  universally 
conceded  not  for  rest  but  for  play.  '  Don't  play 
ball  under  the  windows  of  the  babies'  ward,'  said 
the  matron  of  an  institution  of  charity,  anxious 
to  protect  the  slumbers  of  her  infant  charges,  to 
a  group  of  boisterous  boys.  '  Teacher,  give  us  a 
place  where  we  can  play  ball,  and  then  we  wont 
wake  the  kids,'  said  a  gamin,  speaking  for  the 
crowd.  It  is  the  answer  which  the  working  man 
may  well  make  to  the  somewhat  dry  and  austere 
Sabbatarianism  which  warns  him  off  the  Sunday 
parterres  of  the  '  rich  and  pious,'  and  gives  him 
neither  play-ground  during  the  week,  nor  time  in 
which  to  enjoy  it.  There  have  been  meetings  in 
New  York  in  the  interest  of  the  Saturday  Half- 
Holiday  Movement,  but  the  composition  of  those 
meetings  was  such  as  might  well  make  thoughtful 
people  discouraged  as  to  that  for  which  they  stand. 
For,  thronged  as  they  have  been  in  every  in- 
stance, those  who  have  composed  them  have  been 


468  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

almost  wholly  those  who  were  to  be  benefited  by 
the  proposed  half-holiday.  Those  whose  in- 
fluence and  example  are  most  potent  in  bringing 
about  that  change  were,  however,  conspicuously 
absent,  and  the  capitalists  and  people  of  wealth 
and  leisure,  whose  one  gift  often  is  the  gift  of 
'  setting  a  fashion,'  were  not  to  be  seen.  Yet 
these,  in  many  instances,  are  the  people  who  sign 
remonstrances  against  opening  museums  on 
Sunday,  and  protest  against  paving  the  way  for 
a  '  continental  desecration  of  our  American 
Lord's  Day.' 

"  That  protest,  to  be  effectual,  must  take  an- 
other and  more  consistent  form.  It  must,  in  the 
first  place,  take  the  form  of  example.  The  man- 
ners of  a  people  take  their  tone,  by  an  invariable 
law,  from  the  customs  and  usages  of  the  privi- 
leged classes.  But  what  are  these,  so  far  as  Sun- 
day is  concerned,  and  how  far  do  they  tend  to 
conserve  Sunday  as  a  rest-day,  especially  for  the 
servants  of  the  rich,  and  all  who  are  called  upon 
in  any  way  to  minister  to  their  pleasure  ?  Cer- 
tainly it  cannot  be  claimed  that  there  is,  as  a  rule, 
much  consideration,  in  our  present  Sunday  ob- 
servances, of  the  law  of  periodic  rest,  whether 
from  pleasure  in  the  case  of  the  pleasure-seeking 
and  pleasure-taking  classes,  or  from  labor  in  the 
case  of  those  whose  livelihood  is  earned  in  min- 
istering to  them.  And  until  the  former  can  con- 
sent to  call  a  halt  in  the  ordinary  life  of  the  week 


CHURCH   WORK.  469 

when  Sunday  comes,  and  give  a  pause  to  those 
whose  Sunday  labor  is  often  the  most  arduous  of 
the  week,  it  will  be  in  vain  that  they  close  the 
doors  of  libraries  and  museums,  and  refuse  to 
others  a  license  which  they  take  unreservedly  for 
themselves. 

"  But  more  than  this  is  needed.  When  men 
turn  to  the  example  of  Christ  on  the  Sabbath 
day  as  emancipating  them  from  ancient  and  out- 
worn Sabbatarian  restrictions,  they  would  do  well 
to  remember  by  what  acts  He  disallowed,  so  far 
as  He  did  disallow,  the  elder  Sabbatic  law.  They 
will  be  found  in  every  instance  to  have  been, 
whether  they  were  acts  of  healing,  or  helping,  or 
feeding,  acts  of  mercy  and  beneficence  to  others. 
In  no  single  case  was  there  any  departure  from 
the  old  usage  for  any  merely  selfish  or  personal 
end.  In  one  word,  the  noblest  day  was  hallowed 
anew  by  the  noblest  deeds.  One  who  came  to 
proclaim  in  a  language  intelligible  to  the  hum- 
blest comprehension,  the  law  of  human  brother- 
hood, and  who  so  wrought  and  spoke  that,  of  all 
others,  the  common  people  heard  Him  most 
gladly,  transformed  the  rest-day  of  Judaism  into 
the  healing-day  of  Christianity.  By  miracles, 
such  as  that  wrought  on  the  blind  man  and  the 
paralytic,  He  taught,  once  for  all,  that  those  who 
to-day  have,  in  their  more  favored  circumstances, 
in  their  finer  culture,  in  their  ampler  means, 
gifts  with  which  may  be  wrought  new  miracles 


473  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

of  healing  and  enlightenment  among  the  sorrow- 
ful and  unfortunate,  may  well  take  that  day 
which,  with  unconscious  significance,  the  Chris- 
tian world  is  wont  to  call  '  the  Lord's  day,'  and 
do  in  it,  if  they  never  do  so  at  any  other  time, 
the  Lord^s  work.  His  work  was  to  reveal  to 
men  the  fatherhood  of  God,  and  in  Himself  the 
sonship  of  all  mankind.  It  was  to  draw  together 
severed  classes  and  alienated  races  and  hostile 
hearts.  It  was  to  teach  by  the  one  incomparable 
gift  of  Himself  that  it  is  more  blessed  to  give 
than  to  receive.  It  was,  in  one  word,  to  heal  the 
strifes  and  hatreds  that  held  men  apart  from  one 
another,  and  to  make  of  them  one  family.  And 
when  those  who  have  most  to  enjoy  and  most  to 
give  begin  by  using  Sunday  for  ministries  such 
as  these,  they  will  find  in  them  that  which  best 
conserves  its  truest  sacredness,  and  which  will 
make  its  preservation  from  merely  secular  en- 
croachments the  common  interest  of  '  all  sorts 
and  conditions  of  men.'  l  Rest,'  says  Hooker, 
'  is  a  change  of  labor.'  If  it  cannot  be  quite  that 
to  the  tired  and  over-taxed  laboring  man,  it  may 
well  be  something  like  it  to  his  more  favored 
brethren.  Society  to-day,  disturbed  and  divided 
by  the  mutual  hatreds  and  suspicions  of  employer 
and  employed,  of  rich  and  poor,  of  the  idle  and 
prosperous  on  the  one  hand  and  the  needy  and 
ill-paid  on  the  other,  waits  for  some  gracious  sol- 
vent which  shall  at  once  reconstitute  and  unite 


CHURCH   WORK.  471 

our  whole  social  life.  There  is  but  one.  '  Ye 
call  me  Master  and  Lord,  and  ye  say  well ;  for 
so  I  am.  If  I  then,  your  Lord  and  Master,  have 
washed  your  feet,  ye  also  ought  to  wash  one  an- 
other's feet.  For  I  have  given  you  an  example 
that  ye  should  do  as  I  have  done  to  you.'  It 
will  not  be  by  Sunday  proscriptions,  baring  hard- 
est upon  those  who  are  least  privileged,  that  we 
shall  save  Sunday  from  desecration,  but  by  Sun- 
day ministries  in  the  sanctuary,  most  surely,  but 
outside  of  it,  far  more  actively  and  universally 
than  we  have  ever  yet  dreamed  of  and  in  ways 
that  to  some  of  us  may  seem  at  first  not  quite 
congruous  with  venerable  traditions.  We  want, 
with  our  brethren  of  the  working  class,  that 
which  we  have  largely  lost — the  Church,  I  fear, 
not  less  than  those  who  are  outside  of  it — that 
expressive  thing  which  we  call  '  touch.'  And  we 
can  only  recover  it  by  going  among  them  and 
seeking  to  understand  and  help  them,  not  with 
doles,  or  in  a  spirit  of  condescending  patronage, 
but  with  an  honest  purpose  to  know  them  as  men 
and  to  treat  them  as  brethren.  If  to  this  end  all 
the  congregations  of  all  the  churches  of  our 
great  cities  could  be  turned  out  of  their  comfort- 
able sanctuaries  for  one  Sunday  and  left  to  find 
their  way  among  those  of  whose  lives  and  homes 
they  know  at  present  absolutely  nothing,  this  at 
least  would  come  to  pass,  that  they  would  learn 
enough  to  set  them  thinking  with  unwonted 


472  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

earnestness.  *  Saunders,'  says  an  English  noble- 
man, in  a  modern  work  of  fiction  (having  been 
advised  to  cure  his  hypochondria  by  cultivating 
the  acquaintance  of  people  more  unfortunate 
than  himself) ,  '  do  you  know  any  of  the  working 
classes  ? ' 

"'  Yes,  my  lord.' 

"  l  Then  bring  me  some,  Saunders.' 

"  It  is  a  very  common  mistake  in  dealing  with 
more  than  one  of  our  social  problems.  Unfortu- 
tunately,  the  ( working  classes '  will  not  be 
4  brought.'  But  they  can  be  sought  and  known. 
And  if  we  would  have  them  on  our  side  in  de- 
fending Sunday  from  secular  encroachments,  we 
may  well  use  some  part  of  it  in  cultivating  their 
acquaintance,  and  so  in  learning  of  wants  which, 
once  owned  and  met,  they,  too,  will  join  hands 
with  all  lovers  of  their  kind  in  the  defence  of 
Sunday  and  of  those  common  interests  which  it 
has  so  mightily  helped  to  conserve.  It  may  be 
that  we  cannot  at  once  persuade  them  to  esteem 
it  for  its  highest  uses ;  but  if  we  can  begin  by 
making  it  the  day  of  human  brotherhood — a  day 
for  promoting  its  spirit  and  fostering  its  expres- 
sion— we  shall  have  taken  the  first  step  toward 
rescuing  it  from  dishonor  and  redeeming  it  for 
the  good  of  man  and  the  glory  of  God." 

This  would  be  "  church  work  "  indeed. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

RECREATION. 

ONE  great  misfortune  with  the  American  is 
that  he  has  not  enough  recreation. 

The  next  is  like  unto  it,  for  what  recreation  he 
has  is  not  good  enough. 

We  have  fewer  holidays  than  any  other  people 
in  the  world.  If  we  could  be  persuaded  to  ob- 
serve saints'  days,  it  would  be  a  very  good  thing 
for  this  country.  It  is  said  that  in  Italy  every 
other  day  is  a  festival.  Considering  the  rate  at 
which  Americans  work  while  they  are  at  work,  it 
would  not  seem  much  out  of  the  way  if  every 
other  day  were  a  holiday  here. 

We  work  so  hard,  and  so  thoroughly  make 
work  of  everything,  that  even  our  sports  have  the 
appearance  of  labor.  Take  for  instance  the  na- 
tional game,  by  which  any  one  will  understand 
baseball  is  meant.  It  is  an  honest,  rough-and- 
tumble,  muscular  game  in  its  original  form ;  but 
no  sooner  had  men  begun  to  play  it  well  than  it 
was  turned  into  a  business.  What  had  been 
straightforward  pitching  and  batting  and  catch- 
ing developed  slowly  into  a  combination  of  sharp 

(473) 


474  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

ways  and  tricks.  Nowadays  a  pitcher  does  not 
amount  to  anything  unless  he  attempts  to  trick 
the  man  at  the  bat ;  and  the  man  at  the  bat  in 
turn  is  expected  to  be  wide-awake  for  all  sorts 
of  unexpected  games. 

We  cannot  even  take  our  conventional  amuse- 
ments as  they  were  designed.  The  principal  di- 
versions offered  the  public  for  pay  are  music  and 
the  drama.  But  no  sooner  does  any  one  attempt 
to  enjoy  a  good  concert  or  opera  or  play  for  its 
own  sake  than  there  arises  a  series  of  men  who 
persist  in  reducing  all  to  the  school-room  level 
and  take  them  out  of  the  realm  of  amusement. 
The  plays  and  operas  and  all  musical  composi- 
tions are  treated  as  serious  studies  by  the  major- 
ity of  critics  who"  stand  highest  in  the  public 
estimation  and  in  that  of  the  newspaper  and 
magazine  press,  and  it  is  demanded  of  us  that  we 
shall  sit  about  as  university  students  do  in  a 
lecture-room  and  make  notes,  mentally  or  other- 
wise. 

If  we  go  to  a  yacht  race,  we  are  not  expected 
to  intei  ist  ourselves  so  much  in  a  spirited 
struggle  of  sailors  as  in  smart  tricks  to  get  into 
assisting  currents  or  tides,  and  we  are  expected  to 
take  more  interest  in  the  model  of  a  yacht  than 
in  her  performance  in  all  sorts  of  weather.  Even 
a  college  boat-race  can  no  longer  be  a  matter  of 
momentary  strife  between  a  couple  of  crews,  but 
we  have  to  hear  beforehand  theories  of  rowing 


RECREATION.  475 

and  shapes  of  boats  and  comparative  strokes, 
until  what  used  to  be  one  of  the  commonest  of 
boyish  amusements  has  become,  like  music  and 
drama,  a  science.  In  America  the  horse-race  used 
to  be  a  strife  between  two  or  three  horses,  rode  by 
their  respective  owners,  but  very  seldom  nowa- 
days does  a  gentleman  ride  his  own  horse  in  a 
race  and  depend  upon  the  sympathetic  combina- 
tion of  the  two  to  win.  His  horse  is  carefully 
groomed  by  stable-boys  and  trained  by  an  expert 
who  gets  as  large  a  salary  as  a  college  president, 
and  when  it  gets  upon  the  race-track  it  is  bestrode 
by  some  under-sized,  spindle-shanked  fellow  who 
is  hired  to  ride  it.  The  late  John  Minor  Botts, 
of  Virginia,  long  a  prominent  figure  in  the  na- 
tional Congress,  and  for  thirty  years  a  patron  of 
the  turf  in  his  native  State,  once  retired  from 
horse-racing  in  utter  disgust  at  the  fact  that,  al- 
though he  himself  was  quite  a  heavy  man,  he 
could  find  no  gentleman  who  would  ride  against 
him  in  an  ordinary  country  race.  Weights  were 
carefully  calculated  and  balanced,  a  horse  which 
the  owner  would  treat  almost  as  tenderly  as  if  it 
were  his  wife  was  lashed  and  spurred  by  some 
hireling,  and  Mr.  Botts  declared  that  horse-racing 
had  gone  to  the  devil. 

Sport  has  not  only  become  a  study  and  science 
in  the  United  States,  thanks  or  blame  to  the  prac- 
tical tendency  of  the  American  mind,  but  it 
has  become  even  a  business.  All  the  great  ball 


478  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

games  now  are  played  for  money  and  the  players 
are  professionals.  The  horse-race  is  a  big  gam- 
bling game.  Even  a  couple  of  university  crews 
cannot  go  out  to  row  against  each  other  without 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  being  bet  on 
one  and  the  other.  This  perversion  of  an  honor- 
able sport  has  gone  so  far  that  very  few  people 
nowadays  believe  there  is  any  honesty  in  apparent 
competition  in  sport  at  all.  The  question  seldom 
is  as  to  which  horse  or  which  man  or  which  crew 
will  win,  but  which  is  the  likeliest  to  sell  out  to 
the  bookmakers.  The  infection  extends  all  the 
way  from  the  top  to  the  extreme  bottom.  Prize- 
fights used  to  be  half-way  respectable,  because 
two  fellows  with  a  great  deal  of  muscle  and  very 
little  brains  would  stand  up  face  to  face  all  day 
for  the  sake  of  discovering  which  was  the  better 
man,  but  nowadays  the  fight  is  decided  by  the 
comparative  length  of  pocket  of  the  backers  of 
the  contestants. 

Nevertheless,  a  large  number  of  the  American 
people  are  in  earnest  pursuit  of  amusement  of 
some  kind  and  are  immensely  glad  when  they 
can  find  it.  They  are  not  particular.  In  fact, 
they  are  obliged  to  be  in  the  condition  of  the 
hungry  man  at  a  stage  station  on  the  plains  who, 
when  he  was  told  that  there  was  nothing  for 
dinner  except  fried  rattlesnake,  said  it  was  a 
question  between  that  and  nothing  at  all,  and  he 
had  made  up  his  mind  he  would  enjoy  fried  rattle- 


RECREATION.  477 

snake.  Theatre  companies  are  going  about  the 
country  with  a  lot  of  the  worst  trash  that  possi- 
bly  can  be  put  together  by  the  pen  of  man ;  but 
tired  business  men  and  even  some  professional 
men  of  high  intellectual  calibre  visit  these  shows 
and  wait  patiently  through  two  hours'  winnowing 
of  chaff  with  the  hope  of  catching  some  grain 
of  fun  or  pathos  at  which  they  can  laugh  or  weep. 
The  old  classical  dramas  which  delighted  our 
forefathers  are  no  longer  in  high  repute.  It  is 
not  safe  at  the  present  day  for  Booth  or  Barrett 
to  produce  Shakespeare's  masterpieces  except  at 
a  theatre  where  the  scenery  costs  more  than  the 
playing.  The  plays  which  take  are  those  which 
quickest  provoke  a  laugh.  The  humor  may  be 
coarse,  but  it  is  better  than  none  at  all.  Besides, 
it  is  all  forgotten  within  twenty-four  hours,  and 
perhaps  no  harm  comes  of  it. 

In  fact,  the  encouraging  feature  of  it  all  is  that 
humor  is  more  in  demand  than  anything  else  on 
the  stage.  A  piece  that  is  funny  and  contains  a 
funny  man  can  always  draw.  Humor  has  come 
to  take  the  place  of  charity  in  covering  a  multi- 
tude of  sins.  People  who  work  must  laugh  or 
they  must  go  crazy.  A  famous  physician,  con- 
sulted a  little  while  ago  by  the  bank  president  of 
quite  a  large  village  in  the  central  part  of  the 
country,  said  to  his  patient,  "  The  best  thing  you 
can  do  is  to  go  to  every  comedy  that  is  put  on  the 
stage  in  your  town."  "  But,"  said  the  man,  "  no 


478  OUR   COUNTRY'S   FUTURE. 

comedy  companies  come  to  my  town ;  it  is  too 
small  a  place."  "Ah,  well  then,"  said  the  phy- 
sician, "  I  don't  see  what  there  is  left  except  to 
put  ice  on  the  back  of  your  neck."  The  Ameri- 
can brain  is  overworked  and  must  find  relaxation, 
and  humor  is  its  first  demand. 

It  is  pleasant  to  record  that  the  rule  of  supply 
following  demand  does  not  fail  in  this  country. 
We  have  more  humorists  than  all  the  rest  of  the 
world  combined.  The  people  flock  eagerly  to 
them,  no  matter  through  what  medium  their  fun 
is  offered  the  public.  Such  men  as  Bill  Nye, 
James  Whitcomb  Riley  and  Bob  Burdette  are  in 
demand  all  over  the  country  as  lecturers,  and 
every  funny  thing  they  put  into  print  is  copied 
by  hundreds  of  newspapers  at  once.  A  great 
corporation  lawyer  of  the  city  of  New  York  was 
once  complimented  by  the  author  on  his  selection 
of  the  daily  newspaper  which  he  habitually  read. 
"  Well,"  said  the  legal  light,  "  I  don't  read  it  for 
its  editorials  or  its  news,  but  because  it  contains 
the  best  funny  column  in  the  city.  I  could  not 
go  without  this  paper  every  day  any  more  than  I 
could  go  without  my  breakfast,  and  when  T  chance 
to  be  out  of  town  I  look  more  eagerly  for  the 
trains  which  will  bring  the  paper  than  for  the 
hours  of  sitting  of  a  court  in  which  I  am  obliged 
to  make  an  argument." 

This  demand  for  humor  has  made  itself  so 
thoroughly  felt  in  dramatic  circles  that  at  present 


RECREATION.  479 

the  best  theatrical  company  in  the  United  States 
is  undoubtedly  one  in  New  York,  which  devotes 
itself  entirely  to  comedy.  People  sometimes 
complain  that  the  plays  have  a  family  resem- 
blance, and  that  the  actors  have  the  same  old 
parts  over  and  over  again.  Nevertheless  the 
theatre  is  always  full  and  the  manager  has  a 
most  consoling  bank  account,  although  when  he 
paid  equal  attention  to  what  are  called  strong 
dramatic  works  he  found  no  little  trouble  in 
filling  seats.  Salvini  is  perhaps  the  greatest  of 
living  tragedians,  but  it  is  a  sad  day  for  Salvini 
when  Buffalo  Bill  plays  in  the  same  town.  When 
General  Grant  was  alive,  he  was  very  fond  of 
going  out  evenings  to  some  public  performance, 
but  those  who  knew  him  best  never  saw  him 
where  a  great  tragedy  or  a  French  emotional 
drama  was  being  produced.  He  went  instead 
to  the  circus,  if  it  chanced  to  be  in  town,  and  if 
there  was  no  circus  he  went  where  the  best 
comedy  was  being  played.  Senator  Conkling, 
one  of  the  most  dignified  and  unapproachable 
men  in  the  United  States,  could  easier  be  found  at 
the  circus  in  the  evening  than  at  his  own 
quarters.  The  late  Henry  Bergh,  one  of  the 
solemnest-visaged  men  ever  seen  in  the  metrop- 
olis, was  a  most  inveterate  first-nighter  at  comedy 
theatres,  and  within  speaking  distance  of  him 
could  always  be  found  the  most  distinguished 
members  of  the  State  legislature,  as  well  as 


480  OUR   COUNTRY'S   FUTURE. 

a   large    number  of  legal    luminaries  of   equal 
fame. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  moaning  in  religious 
circles  over  the  prevalence  of  what  is  called 
Sabbath-breaking,  but  it  can  generally  be  traced 
to  the  fact  that  there  are  no  holidays  but  Sunday. 
The  majority  of  people,  and  some  of  them  are 
very  good  and  held  in  deserved  respect  by  the 
most  religious,  are  oftener  found  on  Sundays 
amusing  themselves  in  some  way  than  in  attend- 
ance on  divine  worship.  It  is  not  that  they  need 
religion  less,  but  that  they  need  relaxation  more. 
There  seems  no  way  of  providing  new  holidays. 
We  have  taken  in  all  the  birthdays  of  distin- 
guished men  that  the  public  seem  inclined  to 
respect.  We  respect  two  or  three  great  religious 
feast  days  of  the  year  by  refraining  from  work, 
but  there  are  fewer  people  in  church  on  Christinas 
day  than  on  Sunday.  On  the  Fourth  of  July 
the  most  patriotic  citizen  is  more  likely  to  be 
found  out  fishing  than  listening  to  an  oration  on 
the  purposes  of  the  founders  of  the  republic. 
The  laboring  men  of  the  country  succeeded  some 
time  ago  in  establishing  a  new  holiday  to  be 
called  Labor  day,  and  they  succeeded  also  in 
getting,  in  a  number  of  States,  a  half-holiday  on 
Saturday  afternoon.  It  is  a  pity  that  further 
movements  of  the  same  sort  have  not  already 
been  suggested.  We  work  too  hard,  we  live  too 
fast,  we  think  too  much,  we  wear  out  at  an  early 


RECREATION.  481 

age.  Our  wisest  and  brightest  men  are  contin- 
ually breaking  down  at  a  period  of  life  in  which 
the  foreigner  at  the  same  age  considers  himself 
just  reaching  his  prime.  Nobody  ever  hears  of 
a  great  foreign  financier  going  about  the  country 
in  charge  of  his  physician,  as  Jay  Gould  and  some 
other  noted  Americans  have  done  frequently  in 
late  years.  Nobody  ever  hears  of  a  foreign  cler- 
gyman trying  to  enjoy  a  long  period  of  enforced 
rest,  but  the  custom  is  very  common  here  and  is 
growing  more  so,  to  a  degree  that  calls  for  serious 
thought.  There  must  be  a  change.  Men  drop 
dead  too  frequently.  The  functional  disorder 
is  always  that  of  the  heart.  The  circulation  is 
over-taxed.  It  is  nursed  and  stimulated  by  every 
known  method  until  at  last  there  comes  a  time 
when  there  is  nothing  left  to  work  upon.  The 
man  drops  dead.  His  friends  say  that  it  is  the 
most  comfortable  way  of  dying,  but  dying  is 
not  wHat  we  came  into  the  world  for.  It  is  an 
unpleasant  duty  that  must  be  attended  to  at  some 
time,  but  the  valuable  period  of  a  man's  life  is 
that  in  which  he  has  put  into  practice  the  lessons 
of  experience.  About  the  time  we  reach  it  here 
a  man  is  prematurely  old.  He  must  retire; 
Worse  still,  during  the  time  of  his  abnormal 
activity,  he  has  probably  been  progenitor  of 
several  children,  who  in  the  social  circles  of  any 
other  nation  would  probably  be  looked  to  to 
manifest  and  develop  the  qualities  which  made 
31 


482  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

their  parents  great,  but  here  distinguished  pa- 
rental quality  seems  to  have  been  exhausted  in 
the  first  generation,  and  the  children  who  follow 
either  are  good-for-nothing  or  strike  out  for  them- 
selves in  entirely  new  and  less  important  lines  of 
effort.  Galton,  in  his  famous  work  on  heredity, 
explained  that  the  bad  reputation  of  clergymen's 
sons  was  due  to  the  unnatural  mental  excitement 
and  strain  with  which  their  parents  were  com- 
pelled to  labor.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the 
children  of  almost  all  prominent  men  in  the 
United  States.  We  are  wasting  our  energies 
frightfully,  or  rather  we  are  dissipating  them.  It 
is  not  fair  to  the  public,  it  is  not  fair  to  the 
owners  of  these  energies,  it  is  still  less  fair  to 
their  posterity.  We  must  work  less  and  enjoy 
ourselves  more,  if  we  are  to  be  a  strong  nation 
intellectually,  and  if  the  human  seed  which  is 
sown  shall  bring  forth  the  harvest  which  may 
rightly  be  expected  of  it. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

THE  AMERICAN   PHYSIQUE. 

IF  the  people  of  the  United  States  dou't  take 
care,  they  will  suddenly  find  themselves  obliged 
to  call  upon  barbarians  to  strengthen  up  the  na- 
tional physique. 

Our  women  are  not  what  they  should  be  phys- 
ically. They  are  better  perhaps  than  those  of  a 
generation  ago,  but  that  comparison  does  not 
imply  much  in  their  favor. 

Our  men  are  still  worse,  at  least  those  of  them 
who  live  in  cities  and  towns,  and,  as  the  census 
reports  will  tell  any  one  who  takes  the  pains  to 
examine  them,  the  proportion  of  city  to  country 
population  has  suddenly  jumped  from  about  one- 
twentieth  to  nearly  one-fourth. 

Numerous  natural  causes  lead  to  this  end,  but 
the  effect  is  of  more  immediate  importance  than 
the  cause. 

People  are  frequently  astonished  on  meeting 
some  young  or  almost  middle-aged  business  man 
to  discover  that  he  is  grandson,  or  perhaps  son, 
of  some  man  who  had  a  superb  physique,  while 
the  descendant  can  best  be  described  by  the  con- 

(483) 


484.  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

temptuous  American  appellation,  "  runt."  Our 
cities  and  towns  are  full  of  young  men  but 
slightly  over  five  feet  in  height  and  weighing  but 
little  more  than  a  hundred  pounds. 

Perhaps  you  will  say  that  these  little  fellows 
have  at  least  a  great  deal  of  nerve.  Yes,  so  has 
the  inbred  terrier  dog,  but  every  breeder  knows 
that  it  is  only  a  question  of  time  when  this  par- 
ticular strain  must  entirely  disappear,  the  latest 
specimens  being  afflicted  by  every  ill  to  which 
dog-flesh  is  heir. 

Humanity  is  in  the  same  condition,  and  the 
degeneration  ought  to  be  stopped  quickly.  The 
people  in  our  cities  have  too  little  blood  and 
muscle  and  too  much  nerve.  It  seems  all  right 
while  you  see  them  at  work,  but  working  time  is 
only  an  incident  of  the  daily  life  of  a  respectable 
human  being,  and  the  small,  slight,  large-headed 
man  or  woman  who  works  hard  all  day  long  is 
not  likely  to  rest  well  at  night,  and  any  physician 
of  large  experience  will  tell  you  that  he  is  not 
likely  to  live  out  half  his  possible  three-score 
years  and  ten. 

If  imperfect  physical  organizations  could  go 
out  of  the  world  and  carry  all  the  effects  of  their 
misfortune  with  them,  there  would  be  enough  to 
mourn  over,  but  they  seldom  show  any  inclination 
in  that  direction.  They  are  all  possessed  to  per- 
petuate their  species,  and  the  physical  results  are 
deplorable.  A  boy  or  a  girl  of  twelve  or  fourteen 


THE   AMERICAN   PHYSIQUE.  485 

years  in  the  country  frequently  threatens  to  be 
larger  than  any  of  his  progenitors.  A  boy  or 
girl  of  the  same  age  in  the  city  is  usually  under- 
sized. The  graduating  classes  in  our  grammar- 
schools,  consisting  entirely  of  children  of  ages 
at  which  young  people  of  both  sexes  are  sup- 
posed to  enter  college  if  they  wish  a  higher  edu- 
cation, show  us  a  deplorable  assortment  of  under- 
sized human  beings.  Most  of  them  have  very 
large  heads  ;  among  the  intelligent  classes  of  all 
civilized  communities  the  head  is  too  large  any 
way,  and  the  purpose  of  physical  life  should  be 
to  supply  the  proper  blood,  bone  and  muscle. 

Fortunately  it  is  much  easier  to  educate 
the  body  than  the  mind,  and  a  change  can  be 
brought  about  in  any  family  or  in  any  social 
circle  that  can  really  be  alarmed  about  its  own 
condition.  I  do  not  say  this  on  my  own  authority. 
I  was  talking  a  few  days  ago  on  this  subject  with 
William  Blakie,  a  New  York  lawyer,  who  when- 
ever he  finds  himself  entirely  tired  out  with  the 
duties  of  his  profession  starts  off  for  a  few  days' 
walk,  with  the  intention  of  covering  forty  miles  a 
day  in  the  open  air.  Blakie  used  to  pull  stroke- 
oar  in  the  Harvard  crew  and  he  can  pull  a  mighty 
oar  now,  although  he  is  a  working  lawyer,  a 
Presbyterian  deacon  and  a  man  who  forgets  his 
profession  once  in  a  while  for  the  sake  of  running 
off  two  or  three  hundred  miles  and  lecturing  to  a 


486  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

town-full  of  people  on  the  necessity  of  proper  at- 
tention to  physical  culture.     He  said  : 

"  For  many  years  we  give  six  or  eight  hours 
of  the  best  of  each  day  to  training  boys'  and  girls' 
minds  and  moral '  natures ;  and  nine  boys  and 
girls  out  of  every  ten  in  this  country,  do  not  have 
even  half  an  hour  daily  of  real  bodily  exercise. 
This  makes  it  easy  to  account  for  the  big  heads 
and  poor  bodies  of  most  American  children. 
Look  at  the  world's  greatest  workers  in  any  gen- 
eration, and  see  if  you  find  many  with  first-class 
heads,  third-class  stomachs  and  fourth-class  liv- 
ers. That  is  not  the  way  to  make  really  strong 
men  or  women,  and  it  will  be  a  godsend  to  this 
race  when  we  not  only  find  it  out,  but  see  to  it 
that  every  boy  and  girl  has  a  trained  body  as 
well  as  a  trained  and  well-stored  rnind.  Fortu- 
nately, while  the  latter  takes  six  hours  a  day, 
one  hour  a  day  will  do  for  the  former,  but  this 
precious  hour  ought  to  be  spent  under  wise  and 
vigorous  teaching." 

What  Mr.  Blakie  has  said  was  the  result  of 
close  observation  of  communities,  families  and 
individuals,  and  it  cannot  be  too  closely  taken  to 
heart.  There  have  been  many  differences  in  the 
opinions  recorded  by  foreign  visitors  and  observ- 
ers about  the  American  people,  but  on  one  sub- 
ject they  all  agree,  and  that  is,  that  between  the 
spirit  of  equality,  the  rage  for  wealth,  the  com- 
petition in  business  circles  and  the  stimulating 


WM.  BLAIKIE. 


THE  AMERICAN    PHYSIQUE.  487 

influence  of  our  air,  the  American  people,  from 
the  oldest  to  the  youngest,  are  being  steadily  ex- 
cited to  the  extreme  of  their  capacity.  This 
mistake  should  be  put  an  end  to.  One  tourist, 
who  wrote  a  book  a  few  years  ago,  gravely  ad- 
vanced the  theory  that  the  American  Indian  was 
the  result  of  evolution  from  a  high  type  of  civili- 
zation affected  by  a  stimulating  atmosphere  in  a 
country  of  immense  possibilities  and  without 
physicians.  He  pointed  to  the  Indian  as  an  ex- 
ample of  what  the  entire  population  of  the  United 
States  must  some  day  come  to,  unless  aroused  in 
time  to  a  sense  of  their  physical  dangers.  There 
may  not  have  been  sufficient  basis  for  the  lucu- 
brations of  this  gentleman,  but  it  certainly  is 
true  that  within  three  generations  people  in  most 
of  our  centres  of  knowledge  have  been  able  to 
see  an  entirely  earnest,  nervous,  high-strung 
mental  organization  deteriorate  in  a  family  until 
the  grandson  no  more  resembled  his  grandfather 
than  the  Indian  pony  resembled  the  thorough- 
bred. He  may  have  had  a  great  deal  of  physical 
endurance  of  the  baser  sort,  but  the  energy,  the 
impulse,  the  mentality  and  the  earnestness  which 
characterized  his  ancestors  were  entirely  lacking. 
It  is  easy  to  find  such  specimens  in  almost  any 
prominent  family  in  the  United  States.  The 
greater  the  name  in  old  times,  the  more  insig- 
nificant appear  the  members  of  the  present  gen- 
eration. 


488  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

The  American  physique  ought  to  be  taken  care 
of.  It  is  the  only  one  we  have.  Possibly  we  may 
improve  it  from  time  to  time  by  crossing  the 
blood  with  that  of  some  of  the  coarser  foreign 
nationalities  who  flock  to  our  shores,  but  this 
method  is  so  popular  with  the  aristocratic  families 
of  England  and  the  continental  nations  that  it 
would  never  do  in  the  world  for  us  to  drop  back 
upon  such  a  precedent. 


CHAPTER   XXXI. 

WOMAN  AND  HER  WORK. 

FOR  a  whole  generation  the  public  has  been 
hearing  a  great  deal  of  woman's  rights.  Already, 
however,  woman  has  secured  one  of  the  greatest 
rights  in  the  world.  She  has  the  right  to  labor 
in  any  capacity  in  which  men  hitherto  have  been 
employed. 

Some  close  observers  have  dignified  this  change 
by  calling  it  the  liberation  of  woman.  But  closer 
observers  realize  that  it  is  also  the  liberation 
of  man.  Woman  is  doing  a  great  deal  of  work 
which  man  used  to  do  and  which  it  was  supposed 
only  man  was  competent  to  do,  but  woman  has 
stepped  in  and  done  it  just  as  well  as  man  ever 
did,  and  men,  sometimes  with  thanks  and  occa- 
sionally with  curses,  have  retired  to  other  kinds 
of  labor  more  fit  for  strong  arms. 

The  opinion  of  men  on  this  subject  would 
probably  receive  no  consideration  from  the  gentler 
sex,  but  a  journal  recently  started  specially  to 
advance  the  interests  of  women,  declares  that  at 
the  present  time  there  are  over  three  hundred 
occupations  in  the  United  States,  aside  from 

(489) 


490  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

housekeeping,  in  which  women  find  abundant 
and  remunerative  employment.  What  woman 
has  said,  man  would  be  a  brute  to  unsay. 

There  has  been  a  decided  gain  to  the  world  by 
this  change,  but  the  greatest  gain  has  been  to  the 
sex  to  which  the  world  has  been,  if  not  cruel,  cer- 
tainly indifferent.  Woman  has  been  the  slave, 
the  plaything,  the  toy  of  man  so  long  that  it  is 
hard  to  get  out  of  the  public  mind  the  idea  that 
woman  is  simply  an  appendage  to  the  ruder 
being,  and  that  whatever  she  is  or  is  to  have  de- 
pends upon  the  generosity  of  man.  The  gen- 
erosity of  man  is  no  more  to  be  depended  upon 
by  the  gentler  sex  than  it  is  by  men  themselves. 
All  men  are  generous  when  they  are  not  likely  to 
lose  anything  by  it.  All  men  also  are  selfish, 
and  woman  would  not  now  have  her  present 
chance  in  the  United  States  were  it  not  that  men 
saw  a  gain  for  themselves  in  the  change. 

Woman  may  not  be  getting  as  much  money 
for  some  kinds  of  work  as  man  would  were  he 
doing  the  same  work  himself.  But  the  beginning 
counts  for  a  great  deal  in  this  world.  Everybody 
knows  the  old  saying  that  the  first  step  is  half 
the  battle,  and  woman  has  taken  the  first  step. 
According  to  the  authority  above  quoted  she  has 
taken  over  three  hundred  of  them,  which  is  more 
than  man  can  say  for  himself  during  the  same 
period. 

No  matter  what  may  be  said  by  the  men  who 


WOMAN    AND   HER   WORK.  491 

have  been  displaced  by  women  in  the  various  de- 
partments of  business ;  no  matter  what  may  be 
said  by  unpardonable  gossips  about  women 
stepping  aside  from  the  family  circle  to  do  work 
which  has  no  appearance  of  domesticity  about  it, 
the  truth  is  that  the  appearance  of  women  in 
the  business  world  has  been  of  immense  ser- 
vice to  the  gentler  sex,  and  indirectly  of  great 
benefit  to  the  lords  of  creation.  It  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  the  civilization  of  the  world  that  the 
great  mass  of  mankind  should  realize  that  woman 
is  something  better  than  a  mere  dependent  on 
man,  and  there  is  no  quicker  way  of  teaching 
this  lesson  than  that  of  demonstrating  that 
woman  is  quite  competent  to  take  care  of  herself 
if  she  has  a  fair  chance. 

A  fair  chance  has  been  offered.  It  has  been 
embraced,  and  some  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
women  in  the  United  States  are  doing  for  them- 
selves far  better  than  they  would  have  been  done 
for  by  the  men  into  whose  power  they  would  have 
fallen  under  the  old  custom  of  making  a  woman's 
maintenance  and  existence  entirely  dependent 
upon  the  male  members  of  her  own  family. 

A  large  department  of  industry  in  which  wo- 
men are  employed,  outside  of  household  duties, 
is  that  of  work  at  the  government  offices  at 
Washington.  Irresponsible  newspaper  para- 
graphers  used  to  write  a  great  many  ugly  things 
about  treasury  clerks  and  pension  office  clerks 


492  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

and  other  feminine  employes  of  the  government. 
But  that  sort  of  writing  has  gone  entirely  out  of 
practice.  Seeing  is  believing,  and  the  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  American  citizens  who  have 
yearly  visited  the  national  capital  are  satisfied 
from  their  own  observation  and  still  more  by  their 
personal  acquaintance  with  attaches  of  the  dif- 
ferent departments  that  woman  not  only  knows 
how  to  work,  but  can  prolong  her  efforts  and 
maintain  regular  hours  quite  as  well  as  any 
man ;  and,  to  put  it  mildly,  that  she  is  quite  as 
respectable  as  man. 

Still  more  important,  woman  has  not  yet  found 
it  necessary  to  go  out  to  drink.  It  is  a  severer 
joke  and  comment  upon  the  stronger  sex  than 
any  man  yet  has  been  willing  to  admit  that, 
while  clerks  in  all  departments  of  the  govern- 
ment service  at  the  national  capital  may  be  found 
who  deem  it  necessary  to  stimulate  themselves 
during  business  hours,  women  work  the  cus- 
tomary hours  prescribed,  do  their  work  well,  and 
find  no  need  of  artificial  stimulation. 

Does  this  mean  that  for  sixty  centuries  the 
world  has  been  mistaken  as  to  which  of  the  two 
sexes  is  the  stronger?  This  is  a  good  conun- 
drum to  think  over  when  you  have  some  spare 
time  on  your  hands. 

It  has  also  been  reported  by  the  aforesaid  irre- 
sponsible paragrapher  that  women  clerks  at 
Washington  have  very  little  to  do,  and  that  the 


WOMAN    AND    HER   WORK.  493 

work  with  which  they  are  charged  could  be  at- 
tended to  by  men  with  equal  celerity  and  accu- 
racy ;  but  the  fact  seems  to  be,  according  to  Cabi- 
net officers  of  half  a  dozen  successive  adminis- 
trations, that  the  men  work  neither  so  fast  nor  so 
well,  and  cost  a  great  deal  more  money. 

More  money  probably  will  come  in  time.  No 
slave  can  shake  off  all  his  chains  at  a  single 
blow.  Old  Samson  himself,  when  he  had  broken 
the  manacles  that  bound  him,  was  still  blind  and 
had  to  be  led  about  by  the  hand.  And  woman, 
perhaps,  may  yet  need  some  instruction  and 
friendly  counsel,  but  where  in  a  single  city  a 
great  many  thousands  of  the  gentler  sex  are 
performing  arduous  labor  and  living  up  to  exact- 
ing restrictions,  it  is  far  too  late  to  say  anything 
whatever  about  the  incapacity  of  woman  for  per- 
sistent labor. 

Reference  has  been  made  quite  freely  in  this 
screed  to  the  feminine  employes  of  the  govern- 
ment at  the  national  capital,  but  only  because  this 
is  the  most  prominent  instance  and  illustration  of 
the  capacity  of  women  to  work.  Any  observer, 
however,  can  satisfy  himself,  if  he  will,  on  the 
subject  by  looking  through  prominent  business 
houses  in  any  large  city.  Where  once  every 
desk  had  a  man  behind  it  and  all  the  sales-coun- 
ters were  lined  with  masculine  salesmen,  the 
word  now  in  New  York  and  some  other  cities  is 
that  no  man  shall  be  employed  at  any  work  for 


494  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

which  a  woman  can  be  found.  Woman  has  some 
qualities  especially  attractive  to  the  management 
of  a  large  business.  She  never  gets  drunk,  she 
seldom  goes  into  speculation,  and  still  less  fre- 
quently does  she  look  around  for  something  else 
to  do.  Male  clerks  and  salesmen  are  continually 
on  the  lookout  for  something  better.  They  are 
likely  to  put  their  savings  into  Wall  street  or 
some  other  gambling  den.  They  expect  to  make 
a  great  Career  in  business  somewhere,  somehow, 
some  time ;  but  woman  has  the  superior  quality,  or 
so  it  seems  to  her  employer,  of  being  satisfied  to 
do  well  what  work  she  has  in  hand,  and  look  for 
nothing  else.  Consequently,  marriage  is  almost 
the  only  influence  that  can  ever  remove  her  from 
whatever  may  be  her  chosen  sphere  of  duty. 

But  woman  no  longer  is  satisfied  to  work  for 
poor  wages.  There  are  in  the  United  States 
thousands  of  feminine  physicians.  There  are  a 
few  female  lawyers,  and  indeed  two  or  three  pul- 
pits have  been  satisfactorily  filled  for  a  number 
of  years  by  women.  Other  women  can  be  found 
as  principals  of  large  business  enterprises.  Ev- 
erybody in  Wall  street  knows  Mrs.  Hetty  Green, 
one  of  the  sharpest  and  most  successful  specula- 
tors in  railroad  securities  that  Wall  street  ever 
has  known.  If  she  has  made  any  losses  nobody 
knows  of  them.  On  the  other  side  her  gains 
may  be  counted  by  millions  by  any  broker  on  the 
street.  She  and  her  husband  were  mutually  in- 


WOMAN    AND    HER   WORK.  495 

terested  in  a  large  railroad  enterprise.  Her  hus- 
band has  dropped  out  of  sight.  The  wife  remains, 
and  no  broker  or  operator  who  is  not  very  new  at 
the  business  ever  attempts  to  get  the  better  of 
Mrs.  Green.  Her  fortune  has  been  rolling  up 
steadily  until  it  is  estimated  almost  as  high  as 
that  of  any  but  the  three  most  prominent  men  in  » 
Wall  street,  and  it  continues  to  roll  up.  If  she 
has  any  outside  advisers,  nobody  has  ever  been 
able  to  discover  who  they  are.  Her  methods  are 
so  quiet  and  straightforward  that  she  mystifies 
the  very  elect  among  railroad  men. 

The  business  of  editing  a  newspaper  is  sup- 
posed to  call  for  at  least  as  high  a  combination  of 
intellectual  qualities  as  that  of  being  President 
of  the  United  States,  and  there  are  men  who 
imagine  that  the  first-class  editor  would  let  him- 
self down  were  he  to  accept  the  Presidency.  Yet 
several  prominent  newspapers  in  the  United 
States  are  not  only  edited,  but  managed  in  their 
business  departments  by  women.  They  are  not 
those  most  talked  about;  nevertheless  their  stock 
is  not  in  the  market,  and  it  seldom  changes 
hands.  , 

Woman  is  said  to  be  of  quicker  sensibilities 
than  man.  No  one  will  doubt  it  who  has  seen  a 
woman  count  currency  at  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment at  Washington,  or  handle  a  type-writing 
machine  in  an  office  in  a  large  city.  Recently 
there  have  been  some  exciting  contests  between 


496  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

type-writers,  and  most  of  the  winners  have  been 
women.  In  the  city  of  Cincinnati,  which  con- 
tains more  artistic  furniture  probably  than  the 
city  of  London  or  Paris,  the  work  has  been  done 
almost  entirely  by  the  eyes  and  hands  of  women. 
A  few  years  ago  Hood's  "  Song  of  the  Shirt " 
i  was  quoted  as  frequently  in  America  as  it  once 
was  in  England,  but  nowadays  only  the  stupidest 
of  women,  or  those  caught  most  suddenly  in  em- 
barrassments and  without  any  preparation  for 
the  battle  of  life,  give  themselves  to  the  needle. 
Men  do  that  sort  of  work  now.  Reduced  gentle- 
women who  support  themselves  by  sewing  still 
exist,  but  they  are  not  easy  to  find.  Instead  of 
making  shirts  or  other  cheap  clothing  at  starva- 
tion wages,  the  woman  out  of  employment  nowa- 
days turns  herself  to  some  specialty  of  needle- 
work if  she  knows  no  other  tool  or  method,  and 
there  are  "  exchanges  "  at  which  her  work  may 
be  displayed  and  at  which  orders  are  given  ac- 
cording to  the  samples  shown  and  at  prices 
which  would  astonish  the  old-time  slaves  of  the 
needle.  Women  are  in  all  the  telegraph  offices. 
They  are  clerks  in  thousands  of  business  houses. 
They  are  mechanics,  artisans  and  artists  all  over 
the  country.  It  has  become  so  much  the  fashion 
for  women  to  work  that  nowadays  there  are  signs 
in  London,  Paris  and  New  York  of  common  busi- 
ness enterprises  presided  over  by  women  with 
titles.  The  Princess  de  Sagan,  one  of  the  bril- 


WOMAN    AND   HER   WORK.  497 

liant  lights  of  the  court  of  the  last  Napoleon, 
manages  a  dress-making  establishment  in  Paris 
and  New  York.  Other  ladies,  equally  illus- 
trious, are  well  known  in  trade  circles  in  London 
and  on  the  Continent. 

All  this  looks  strongly  like  the  emancipation 
of  women,  but  it  does  not  at  first  sight  convey  its 
full  meaning  to  the  observer  or  reader.  The 
most  important  result  of  it  all  is  that  woman  is 
thus  made  independent  of  man.  A  woman  of 
brains  no  longer  needs  to  marry  in  order  to  have 
a  home.  It  would  be  difficult  to  suggest  the  pro- 
portion of  unhappy  marriages  which  have  been 
due  to  the  fact  that  admirable  women  have  been 
utterly  unable  to  care  for  themselves  in  the  world, 
and  consequently  have  attached  themselves  for 
prudential  reasons,  although  by  a  revered  form 
and  sacrament,  to  some  man.  But  no  longer  is 
this  necessary.  There  are  all  kinds  of  women  as 
well  as  all  kinds  of  men  in  business,  but  it  is  far 
safer  in  society  to  attempt  a  romantic  flirtation 
with  a  woman  than  to  make  similar  attempts  in 
any  business  circles  where  women  are  employed. 
There  are  a  great  many  handsome  and  spirited 
women  in  the  departments  at  Washington,  but  no 
sentimental  young  man  is  fool  enough  to  lounge 
about  these  places  with  the  hope  of  getting  up 
a  flirtation.  The  woman  who  knows  how  to  sup- 
port herself  is  not  going  to  be  in  haste  to  marry. 
When  she  marries  she  is  going  to  have  a  hus- 

32 


498  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

band,  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name,  as  well  as  a 
home.  She  can  afford  to  wait.  She  has  entire 
control  of  her  own  destiny  and  she  cannot  be 
taken  at  a  disadvantage.  Instead  of  marrying 
for  a  home,  the  tables  have  been  so  turned  that 
nowadays  a  large  number  of  men  are  on  the  look- 
out for  women  who  can  give  them  a  home. 
Plenty  of  men  can  be  found  who  are  desirous  of 
marrying  in  order  to  be  supported,  instead  of 
marrying  for  the  purpose  of  supporting  somebody 
else. 

The  gain  to  woman  in  this  change  of  affairs 
is  simply  inestimable.  It  is  unnecessary  to 
call  any  one's  attention  to  the  comparative  great- 
ness of  risk  which  woman  sustains  in  entering  the 
marriage  relation  now,  and  the  helplessness  in 
which  she  found  herself  under  the  old  rule,  when 
man  was  the  only  wage-earner.  Women  are 
working  for  themselves,  even  married  women,  all 
over  the  United  States.  In  many  of  the  New 
England  manufacturing  towns  there  are  hun- 
dreds, and  in  some  of  them  thousands,  of  women, 
already  married,  working  at  the  same  trades  as 
their  husbands,  but  keeping  their  own  separate 
bank  accounts  at  the  savings  banks.  A  man  can 
no  longer  afford  to  abuse  a  woman  because  she  is 
dependent  upon  him,  and  dare  not  complain,  for 
fear  of  losing  her  source  of  maintenance.  A 
woman  of  any  brains  in  any  industry  can  care 
for  herself  quite  as  well  as  any  husband  is  likely 


WOMAN    AND    HER   WORK.  499 

to  care  for  her.  The  consequence  is  that  divorces 
are  very  infrequent  in  New  England  manu- 
facturing towns.  If  either  member  of  a  married 
couple  is  given  to  lounging  and  bad  habits,  it  is 
likely  to  be  the  man.  It  is  only  fair  to  say  in 
man's  favor  that  the  temptations  are  principally 
on  the  masculine  side.  Women  have  not  yet  to 
any  extent  taken  to  drink,  billiards  and  politics. 
They  do  not  bet  on  horse-race^  or  buy  pools  on 
sparring  matches  or  go  on  excursions  to  neigh- 
boring towns  for  the  sake  of  indulging  habits 
which  are  unsafe  to  make  public  at  home;  so 
the  woman  of  the  house  is  far  less  likely  to  be 
out  of  work  or  to  be  away  from  her  post  than  her 
husband. 

What  the  effect  of  this  change  in  the  indus- 
trial outlook  may  be  upon  children  is  yet  un- 
known. But  it  is  a  fair  question,  whether  the 
woman  whose  daily  hours  are  employed  at  me- 
chanical or  clerical  occupations  is  likely  to  bring 
up  her  children  \vorse  than  the  woman  whose 
leisure  moments  are  consumed  in  small  talk  and 
social  dissipation.  No  child  can  be  less  cared 
for  than  that  of  the  society  queen.  The  com- 
monest washer-woman,  who  leaves  her  home  at 
early  dawn  and  does .  not  return  until  darkj  can 
give  her  offspring  more  attention  than  can  be 
expected  by  the  children  of  many  ladies  whose 
names  appear  in  the  fashionable  columns  of 
newspapers  which  give  considerable  space  to  that 


500  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

sort  of  thing.  Whether  each  family  should  not 
contain  one  member  whose  duties  and  interests 
are  entirely  confined  to  the  home  circle,  is  also  a 
question  upon  which  a  great  deal  can  be  said  upon 
both  sides.  But  the  fact  to  be  brought  into 
prominence  at  the  present  time  is  that  woman 
has  already  acquired  the  right  to  earn  her  own 
living  and  is  doing  it,  to  the  extent  of  some  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  women,  most  admirably. 
Women  are  presidents  of  large  colleges  in  the 
United  States ;  colleges,  it  is  true,  intended  solely 
for  the  education  of  members  of  their  own  sex ; 
nevertheless  the  course  of  study  and  the  subse- 
quent social  and  literary  standing  of  the  gradu- 
ates shows  that  the  work  done  in  these  institu- 
tions is  well  done.  The  best  proof  of  this  is  in 
the  better  colleges  for  girls  in  the  United  States. 
The  demand  for  scholarships  far  exceeds  the 
supply,  and  there  are  millionaires  in  this  country 
who  have  not  yet  been  able  to  put  their  daugh- 
ters in  any  one  of  the  three  or  four  best  femi- 
nine colleges  in  the  land.  * 

In  literature  woman  has  made  her  way  to  an 
extent  which  every  one  knows,  if  he  reads  at 
all.  Our  most  popular  novels  are  all  written 
by  women.  Women  write  a  great  deal  of  our 
poetry.  It  is  impossible  to  find  a  first-class  mag- 
azine which  does  not  contain  a  number  of  con- 
tributions by  women,  and  those  contributions  are 
quite  as  much  talked  about  and  quite  as  fre- 


WOMAN    AND   HER   WORK.  501 

quently  read  as  anything  written  by  the  most 
prominent  masculine  minds  in  the  land.  As  a 
novelist,  the  young  woman  is  immeasurably  the 
superior  of  the  young  man.  No  young  man 
ever  wrote  a  novel  as  famous  as  "  Charles  Au- 
chester  "  at  as  early  an  age  (seventeen  years)  as 
that  of  the  young  lady  who  is  the  author  of  this 
still  much-read  book;  and  our  publishers  are 
flooding  the  market  with  other  novels  by  women 
who  have  not  yet  reached  their  majority.  If 
quick  perception,  facility  of  expression,  and 
piquant  comment  are  sufficient  to  make  the 
novelist,  our  future  novels  must  be  written  prin- 
cipally by  young  women.  That  they  make  some 
dreadful  blunders  is  very  true.  Some  of  the 
most  abominable  books  that  have  been  inflicted 
upon  a  much-suffering  public  during  the  past 
year  have  been  from  the  pens  of  young  women 
who  ought  to  have  known  better,  if  they  had 
known  anything  at  all.  Nevertheless,  it  is  a 
great  deal  easier  in  literature  to  tone  down  than 
to  tone  up,  and  somehow  the  necessity  for  toning 
down  has  not  been  apparent  to  any  great  extent 
in  fiction  and  poetry  written  by  young  men. 

The  "  restraining  force,"  to  which  social  phi- 
losophers attribute  the  sudden  rise  of  some  family, 
nation  and  tribe,  may  account  for  the  sudden 
prominence  and  brilliancy  of  women  in  many 
departments  of  life.  There  may  be  such,  a  thing 
as  inheritance  by  sex,  and  a  sex  long  suppressed, 


502  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

as  woman  certainly  has  been,  in  all  but  the  do- 
mestic virtues,  may  have  a  great  deal  to  give  the 
world  and  then  suddenly  fade  out  of  prominence. 
But  at  present  all  odds  are  in  favor  of  woman. 
She  has  made  her  way  so  rapidly,  though  unob- 
trusively, and  so  pleasantly,  that  every  man  who 
has  the  proper  manly  heart  within  him  will  be 
glad  to  see  her  go  a  great  deal  further,  and  be- 
lieve that  she  is  quite  competent  to  do  it. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

THE  KITCHEN. 

IF  the  blood  is  the  life — and  the  Bible  says  it 
is — then  the  kitchen  deserves  to  be  regarded  with 
more  respect  than  it  ever  has  received  from  Amer- 
icans. 

Nevertheless  we  are  the  worst  fed  people  upon 
the  face  of  the  earth.  If  any  one  doubts  it,  let 
him  compare  any  hundred  American  men  and 
women  upon  Broadway,  New  York,  with  a  hun- 
dred foreigners,  immigrants,  from  any  one  of  the 
poorly  fed  nations  of  Europe  who  may  chance  to 
stroll  from  Castle  Garden  up  the  Metropolis'  prin- 
cipal thoroughfare. 

The  trouble  is  not  that  we  do  not  have  sufficient 
raw  material,  but  that  no  one  seems  to  know  what 
to  do  with  it.  Of  course  there  are  homes  with  a 
genius  presiding  over  the  household  destinies 
who  knows  how  to  prepare  food  fit  to  be  turned 
into  desirable  and  admirable  human  nature,  but 
they  seem  the  exception  that  proves  the  rule. 

Our  food  products  and  food  materials  are  the 
best  in  the  world,  otherwise  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth  would  not  be  so  desirous  of  obtaining  them. 

(503) 


504  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

Our  wheat  is  held  in  highest  esteem  in  all  the 
markets  of  Europe.  Our  beef  and  mutton  are 
sent  over  by  the  ton,  indeed,  by  hundreds  of  tons 
every  week;  and  even  our  pork,  the  flesh  of  the 
despised  pig,  is  shipped  to  every  portion  of  the 
world  from  American  ports.  Even  our  fruit  is 
found  in  almost  all  the  commercial  ports  of  the 
old  world.  If  England  could  not  get  American 
apples  to  last  from  early  autumn  till  late  spring, 
there  would  be  almost  a  riot  in  some  portions  of 
the  British  Isles. 

Yet  what  do  Americans  have  to  live  upon  and 
what  have  they  to  show  for  it  ?  Whatever  the 
kitchen  may  prepare  and  send  up  to  the  dining- 
room,  the  fact  is,  that  the  physique  which  results 
from  it  is  not  such  as  any  country  should  be 
proud  of.  We  are  a  nation  of  undersized  men 
and  slight-waisted  women.  Even  in  the  farming 
districts  where  men  live  out  of  doors  and  have  the 
benefit  of  the  free  air  of  heaven,  which  is  a 
remedy  for  all  sorts  of  physical  disorders,  dys- 
peptics are  found  by  hundreds  of  thousands,  and 
any  one  who  can  devise  a  nostrum  affording  the 
slightest  relief  from  the  national  disease  may  be 
sure  of  making  a  fortune.  Indeed,  some  scores 
of  fortunes  have  been  made  in  this  way  alone. 

"  God  sends  food,  but  the  devil  sends  cooks." 
It  is  an  old  saying  that  never  was  better  exem- 
plified than  in  this  country  of  ours. 

What  is  the  reason  ?     There  are  several,  but 


THE   KITCHEN.  505 

in  the  end  they  resolve  themselves  into  one.  The 
American  kitchen  is  the  one  neglected  portion  of 
the  house,  as  a  rule. 

It  seems  unnecessary  that  this  should  be;  so 
long  as  man  is  human  he  must  live  by  eating, 
and  will  have  an  appetite.  Woman  is  like  unto 
him  in  these  particulars.  The  custom  of  de- 
manding food  three  times  a  day  is  about  as  old 
as  civilization  and  promises  to  continue  as  long 
as  humanity  lasts.  The  human  appetite  is  a 
constant  quantity,  as  mathematicians  say,  no 
matter  what  may  be  the  conditions  surrounding 
the  owner.  Men  and  women,  boys  and  girls, 
aesthetes  and  bullies,  divines  and  prize  fighters, 
all  agree  that  three  solid  meals  a  day  are  neces- 
sary to  proper  physical  and  mental  development. 

But  we  Americans  have  so  much  else  to  think 
about,  we  have  so  many  demands  upon  our  time 
and  attention,  that  it  has  come  to  be  regarded  as 
a  matter  of  course  that,  so  long  as  the  table  is  set 
three  times  a  day  and  something  is  put  upon  it, 
people  are  properly  fed.  This  is  a  dreadful  mis- 
take, and  the  whole  nation  has  to  suffer  for  it. 

It  is  not  at  all  to  the  point  to  tell  us  upon  what 
small  fare  and  hard  fare  certain  other  peoples  of 
the  world  live  and  thrive.  We  are  not  those 
people;  we  are  Americans.  We  have  a  great 
deal  more  to  do  than  they.  If  we  never  used 
our  hands  and  feet  at  all,  we  would  require  more 
nourishment  than  the  majority  of  people  of  any 


506  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

other  civilized  nation,  for  every  American  has  a 
great  deal  to  think  about  as  well  as  a  great  deal 
to  do.  He  has  more  rights,  so  he  has  more 
responsibilities ;  therefore  he  has  a  great  deal 
more  to  think  about  and  needs  a  great  deal  more 
of  substantial,  well-nourished  gray  matter  in  his 
brain.  There  is  no  way  to  get  it  except  from  the 
blood  ;  the  blood  can't  get  it  except  from  the  food, 
and  the  food  must  come  every  time  from  the 
kitchen.  If  the  kitchen  fails,  the  nation  must 
fail.  This  may  seem  going  from  the  sublime  to 
the  ridiculous,  but  it  is  nothing  of  the  kind.  The 
honor  is  as  great,  though  of  a  different  kind,  of 
supplying  the  stomach  as  of  supplying  the  soul : 
for  the  inter-communication  of  soul  and  body  are 
so  close  and  frequent  that  the  most  spiritually- 
minded  man  or  woman  will  be  free  to  admit  that 
his  conduct  cannot  be  according  to  the  inner  life 
unless  his  physique  is  also  supported  from  the 
inner  source  of  vitality. 

It  would  seem  that  there  is  no  need  for  com- 
plaint on  this  score  in  the  United  States.  Books 
of  instructions  in  cookery  are  about  ten  times  as 
numerous  as  commentaries  on  the  Bible,  which 
otherwise  are  the  most  frequent  and  familiar 
books  in  American  literature.  Any  one  who 
wishes  to  vary  the  daily  bill  of  fare  of  his  family, 
and  has  no  personal  knowledge  on  the  subject, 
can  easily  be  supplied  to  any  extent  by  indulging 
in  any  one  of  two  or  three  hundred  books,  no  one 


THE   KITCHKN.  507 

of  which  is  bad  and  most  of  which  are  very  good. 
And  yet  we  continue  to  be  an  ill-fed,  badly  nour- 
ished people,  and  the  consequences  go  forth,  down 
to  the  third  and  fourth  generations,  as  promised 
in  the  Scriptures  regarding  the  iniquities  of  the 
fathers — also  the  mothers. 

The  origin  of  all  this  trouble  to  the  American 
inner  man  and  woman  may  probably  be  found 
in  our  *  national  impulses  and  aspirations.  We 
seem  to  think  that  nothing  material  in  humanity 
is  worthy  of  great  consideration.  We  are  so  hard 
at  work  in  improving  our  minds  and  brightening 
our  intellects  and  making  ourselves  the  equal  of 
any  one  else,  intellectually,  mentally  and  finan- 
cially, that  we  affect  to  despise  the  ordinary 
means  of  reaching  such  ends.  Nothing  can 
exist  without  a  foundation.  Nature  and  nature's 
God  has  decreed  that  the  mind  shall  depend  upon 
the  brain,  and  the  brain  shall  depend  upon  the 
body,  and  unless  the  body  is  properly  nourished 
the  brain  cannot  be  equal  to  whatever  its  owner 
would  have  it  do. 

This  is  so  old  and  so  commonplace  a  fact  that 
it  seems  almost  necessary  to  apologize  for  re- 
stating it  here,  yet  the  great  body  of  the  people 
do  not  seem  yet  to  understand  it.  It  appears  to 
be  the  impression  of  many  that  the  body  can 
take  care  of  itself,  and  that  there  is  some  mys- 
terious, inexplicable,  but  providential  means  and 
methods  by  which  the  mind  shall  fare  satis- 


508  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

factorily,  regardless  of  any  human  and  material 
attention.  The  sooner  we  get  over  notions  of 
that  sort  the  better.  Because  occasional  ascetics 
have  succeeded  in  proving  themselves  exceptions 
to  the  rule  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  it  does 
not  follow  that  the  rest  of  us  can  act  accord- 
ingly. 

If  any  one  wants  evidence  to  this  effect,  he  can 
find  it  in  some  hundreds  of  New  England  ceme- 
teries. The  early  New  Knglanders  were  almost 
all  mind.  To  state  it  more  properly,  they  were 
almost  all  soul,  with  a  little  mind  as  tender  and 
assistant  to  the  higher  and  more  ethereal  power. 
They  were  the  descendants  of  a  religious  colony. 
They  expected  a  speedy  end  to  all  things,  and 
the  body  was  held  in  contempt  and  the  soul  ele- 
vated to  the  extreme  capacity  of  the  owner,  to 
make  it  fit  for  the  joys  which  were  awaiting  it 
and  which  were  expected  very  soon  to  be  con- 
ferred. That  all  this  was  well  meant  will  be  ad- 
mitted by  any  one.  That  it  was  a  shocking  mis- 
take is  proved  by  long  rows  of  head-stones, 
recording  the  deaths  of  nearly  all  the  members 
of  one  family  after  another.  "  The  Lord  gave 
and  the  Lord  taketh  away,"  is  a  common  inscrip- 
tion upon  such  tomb-stones.  A  truer  statement 
would  be,  "  Killed  by  the  kitchen." 

During  the  civil  war,  which  is  conventionally 
alluded  to  as  the  "  late  unpleasantness,"  it  was 
my  fortune  or  misfortune  to  spend  some  time  in 


THE  KITCHEN.  509 

a  camp  of  soldiers  and  to  partake  of  the  daily 
fare  of  the  defenders  of  the  Union.  Looked  at 
in  the  aggregate,  it  was  dreadfully  poor  stuff,  yet 
when  cooked  under  the  supervision  of  officers 
who  had  the  power  to  place  the  cook  in  the  guard- 
house, or  punish  him  more  severely  for  neglect 
of  duty,  the  several  articles  of  food-supply 
emerged  from  the  camp  kettles  in  palatable  form, 
and  with  such  effect  that  the  men  who  ate  them 
were  in  finer  physical  condition  than  they  ever 
had  been  seen  at  home  by  the  writer  of  these 
lines.  It  is  useless  to  say  that  they  were  men 
who  never  had  decent  food  before ;  for  many  of 
them  were  from  very  good  families,  families 
whose  means  and  intentions  were  quite  as  good 
as  any  one  could  ask  for,  but  somehow  the  army 
pork  and  beans  and  flour  were  worked  into  nu- 
tritious shape  and  turned  to  such  good  effect  by 
the  chemistry  of  nature,  that  most  men  who  ate 
them  were  healthy,  strong,  and  in  high  spirits, 
three  conditions  of  physical  life  which  had 
seldom  been  noticed  in  them  while  they  were  in- 
habiting their  own  homes  and  enjoying  all  the 
comforts  of  civilized  life. 

What  can  be  done  by  a  lot  of  stupid  fellows 
cooking  over  open  fires  in  the  open  air  can  cer- 
tainly be  accomplished  by  American  women  on 
improved  ranges  and  gas  stoves  and  oil  stoves, 
with  all  the  appliances  that  modern  ingenuity 
has  been  able  to  devise,  and  with  the  great  variety 


510  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

of  raw  material  which  it  was  utterly  impossible 
to  obtain  in  the  field  during  the  war.  When  the 
soldiers  got  their  pay  and  were  able  to  go  to  a 
neighboring  village  with  a  market  basket  and 
bring  back  a  few  vegetables,  fresh  meats,  and  so 
forth,  the  meals  that  were  served  in  some  camps 
were  absolute  feasts.  .  Civilians  visiting  there  at 
the  time  were  delighted,  and  expressed  themselves 
almost  willing  to  undergo  the  military  life,  with 
all  its  special  duties  and  dangers  and  responsibili- 
ties, for  the  sake  of  being  so  well  fed.  A  more 
severe,  though  unconscious  sarcasm,  was  never 
heard  regarding  American  housekeeping ;  but  it 
had  the  merit,  sad  it  is  to  say  it,  of  absolute 
truth. 

Probably  a  great  deal  of  the  misery  to  which 
the  American  digestion  is  subjected  is  due  to  the 
supposition  that  cooking  is  menial  duty,  and  that 
it  ought  to  be  done  by  menials.  There  are  por- 
tions of  the  world  where  this  mistaken  idea  would 
be  laughed  at.  There  are  English,  German  and 
French  ladies  almost  without  number — ladies 
of  large  means,  fine  taste  and  high  education 
— who  do  not  consider  it  beneath  their  dignity 
and  intelligence  to  superintend  their  kitchens  and 
inspect  every  meal  before  it  is  placed  upon  the 
table.  They  would  no  more  think  of  trusting 
the  preparation  of  food  for  their  families  to  a 
common,  ignorant  servant  in  the  kitchen,  than 


THE   KITCHEN.  511 

they  would  think  of  trusting  uncounted  money 
to  a  tramp. 

But  the  American  woman  appears  to  look  upon 
the  matter  from  an  entirely  different  standpoint. 
Cooking  is  drudgery ;  drudgery  should  be  done 
by  servants ;  consequently,  servants  should  do  all 
the  cooking,  and  be  able  to  do  it  without  any  in- 
struction from  their  mistresses.  Consequently, 
the  principal  business  of  the  American  woman 
who  has  any  ambition  and  any  regard  for  her 
family,  is  the  selection  and  frequent  changing  of 
servants.  Why  it  should  be  otherwise  is  hard  to 
see.  The  classes  from  which  servants  are  se- 
lected in  the  United  States  are  not  those  who 
have  had  any  great  experience  in  preparing  food 
in  the  best  manner  for  the  table.  In  their  own 
families  they  have  not  been  able  to  afford  it,  and 
they  have  had  few  opportunities  of  learning  ex- 
cept at  the  expense  of  some  one  else.  The  old- 
est servant  is  generally  the  safest  so  far  as  the 
superintendence  of  the  kitchen  is  concerned. 
What  can  any  one  expect  from  peasants  just  out 
of  the  humblest  abodes  of  Germany  or  the  mud- 
floor  huts  of  Ireland,  or  the  still  ruder  cabins  of 
the  colored  people  of  our  own  South  ?  Yet  it  is 
from  these  classes  that  American  housekeepers 
are  compelled  to  select  their  servants,  and  it  is 
to  these  classes  that  they  intrust  the  very  respon- 
sible duty  of  preparing  the  food  which  is  to  make 


512  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

the  body  and  brain  of  their  husbands  and  chil- 
dren, to  say  nothing  of  their  own. 

There  must  be  an  immense  change  if  we  are 
not  to  degenerate  into  a  feeble,  undersized,  small- 
brained  people.  If  Americans  are  to  fulfil  what 
they  regard  as  their  manifest  destiny,  they  must 
be  a  great  deal  better  fed  than  they  are  at  the 
present  time.  To  call  attention  to  the  splendid 
physical  specimens  of  manhood  and  womanhood 
that  have  come  down  to  us  from  the  past  genera- 
tion or  two  is  not  at  all  to  the  point.  Most  of 
these  people  lived  in  the  open  air,  a  most  excel- 
lent palliative  of  all  sorts  of  physical  disorders ; 
but  at  the  present  time  a  fourth  of  the  Ameri- 
can public  live  in  towns  and  confine  themselves 
to  sedentary  occupations,  and  the  other  part  is 
endeavoring  to  do  the  same  as  quickly  as  possi- 
ble. House  plants  require  more  attention  than 
out-of-door  plants,  as  any  one  knows  who  has 
done  any  experimenting  in  amateur  gardening. 
The  house  plant  which  consists  of  physical 
human  nature  is  the  most  delicate  specimen  of 
all  to  take  care  of,  and  it  should  be  managed 
with  more  intelligence  than  ever  yet  has  been 
exhibited  regarding  it. 

If  Americans  are  to  be  well  and  properly  fed, 
American  women  must  attend  to  it.  The  work 
may  be  hard,  but  it  certainly  should  not  be  re- 
garded as  degrading.  In  France,  in  England, 
and  even  in  the  United  States  to  a  large  extent, 


THE   KITCHEN.  513 

there  are  a  great  number  of  intelligent  men  who 
pride  themselves  on  details  of  cookery.  They've 
been  obliged  to  do  so,  for  dishes  which  they 
wished  prepared  they  were  unable  to  obtain  by 
any  amount  of  instruction  to  underlings.  Nothing 
but  close  personal  supervision  and  an  occasional 
hand  in  the  details  give  them  the  result  which 
they  desire.  If  men,  whom  all  women  know  to 
be  stupid  about  such  matters,  can  become  accom- 
plished and  successful  cooks,  turning  the  com- 
monest of  raw  materials  into  delicious  and  nutri- 
tious dishes,  certainly  woman  should  not  allow 
herself  to  be  outdone. 

I  have  been  told  that  during  a  certain  period  of 
the  civil  war,  when  a  board  of  examination  was 
sitting  at  Washington  selecting  officers  for  a 
number  of  new  regiments  which  were  under  the 
immediate  control  of  the  United  States,  instead 
of  State  authorities,  a  common  question  put  to 
candidates  was,  "  What  would  you  consider  your 
first  duty  were  you  commander  of  a  company  of 
soldiers  ?  "  This  question  was  answered  differ- 
ently by  a  great  many  different  men,  but  one  day 
a  private  soldier  who  had  applied  for  promotion 
answered  by  saying,  "  I  would  never  let  a  meal 
be  dealt  out  at  the  cook-house  until  I  had  my- 
self tasted  each  article  and  satisfied  myself  that 
it  was  properly  cooked  and  would  make  good  bone 
and  muscle."  That  candidate,  although,  as  al- 
ready said,  he  was  a  private  soldier,  received  a 

33 


514  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

very  high  commission.  The  men  who  examined 
him  knew  the  relation  between  cause  and  effect, 
and  that  properly  fed  men  would  make  strong 
and  reliable  men. 

If  we  had  only  men  to  think  of,  the  problem 
would  not  be  so  serious,  and  its  solution  so  im- 
mediately demanded ;  but  for  every  man  alive 
there  are  two  or  three  children,  beings  who  them- 
selves are  helpless,  without  control  or  without 
authority  over  the  conditions  of  their  own  lives. 
Their  physical  development,  which  is  to  fit  them 
for  such  portions  of  the  battle  of  life  which  they 
must  fight,  depend  largely  upon  the  kitchen,  and 
the  duty  of  humanity  to  these  helpless  beings  is 
too  serious  and  too  unmistakable  to  admit  of  any 
excuse  for  neglect.  The  result  to  the  child  of 
under-feeding  or  improper  feeding  is  one  upon 
which  physicians  have  discoursed  at  great  length 
and  with  great  intelligence,  and  the  facts  may  be 
obtained  without  any  trouble  by  any  one  who  is 
interested  in  them. 

Is  the  duty  of  supervising  the  kitchen,  or  even 
doing  the  work,  disgraceful  to  women  of  the 
higher  order  of  mentality  ?  The  late  Theodore 
Parker,  who,  whatever  may  be  thought  of  hjis 
theological  views,  was  certainly  a  man  of  high 
intellectual  character  and  abounding  in  human 
sympathy,  was  once  asked  by  one  of  his  parish- 
ioners, who  was  a  woman,  to  define  the  unpar- 
donable sin.  "  It's  making  bad  bread,"  said  he  ; 


THE    KITCHEN.  515 

and  the  poor  man  evidently  spoke  from  the 
depths  of  his  own  indigestion.  Hundreds  of 
thousands  of  American  men  every  day  make  a 
mere  apology  for  breakfast  at  their  home  tables, 
trusting  to  make  up  the  deficiency  at  dinner  at  a 
restaurant  somewhere  in  the  city  or  town  at  mid- 
day. This  is  not  as  it  should  be,  for  the  women 
of  their  families  cannot  accompany  them  to  the 
aforesaid  restaurants,  neither  can  the  children. 
Good  food  is  a  necessary  requisite  of  good  health 
and  good  mentality.  Its  preparation  is  beneath 
the  capacity  and  destiny  of  no  one.  To  confide 
its  preparation  absolutely  to  underlings,  to  people 
who  never  have  had  any  experience  with  unlim- 
ited quantity  and  good  quality  of  raw  material, 
is  a  greater  fault  than  it  seems  ever  to  have  ap- 
peared to  the  American  mind.  When  our  people 
have  better  food  we  will  have  fewer  theologies  but 
a  great  deal  more  religion,  fewer  political  fights 
but  much  purer  politics,  fewer  household  quarrels 
but  more  home  joys. 


CHAPTER   XXXIII. 

OUR  SERVANTS. 

"  HE  who  would  be  the  greatest  among  you, 
let  him  be  the  servant  of  all,"  says  the  Bible. 
The  injunction  seems  to  be  very  literally  and 
persistently  fulfilled  in  America,  for  whoever  is 
greatest  among  us,  by  wealth  and  social  position, 
is  sure  to  have  the  greatest  number  of  servants, 
and  the  more  numerous  his  servants,  the  more  is 
he  the  servant  of  them  all. 

The  probable  outcome  of  the  servant  question 
is  at  present  as  much  a  matter  of  doubt  as  the  re- 
sults of  searching  back  for  the  cause  of  all  things. 
Domestic  service  in  the  United  States  is  uni- 
versally admitted  to  be  universally  bad.  There 
are  degrees  of  badness,  but  very  little  good  is  to 
be  discovered  in  it. 

A  jewel  of  a  servant  is  sometimes  reported,  but 
in  a  very  short  time  the  report  is  corrected,  some- 
times in  language  unfit  for  publication. 

American  women  ask  one  another  indignantly 
why  we  cannot  have  servants  in  this  country 
such  as  people  have  in  Europe.  It  never  seems 
to  occur  to  them  that  in  Europe  most  servants 

(516) 


OUR  SERVANTS.  517 

are  trained  by  their  employers,  whereas  in  the 
United  States  the  mistress  expects  to  have  her 
servants  come  to  her  fully  trained. 

There  is  something  pathetic  in  the  universal 
American  outlook  and  expectation  for  good  ser- 
vants. Why  should  they  be  expected  ?  Where 
are  they  to  come  from  ?  The  only  sources  are 
the  peasant  classes  of  the  Old  World  and  the 
colored  people  of  our  own.  None  of  these  people 
have  had  the  training  requisite  to  the  proper  care 
of  any  American  home,  yet  the  American  woman 
seems  determined  to  set  the  standard  of  profi- 
ciency and  perfection.  She  knows  through  her 
own  unaided  reason,  unless  she  is  an  imbecile, 
that  the  classes  from  whom  she  selects  her  do- 
mestic assistants  have  had  no  opportunity  to 
learn  to  cook  well,  and  still  less  to  care  for  the 
contents  of  large,  handsome,  well-filled  houses. 
Yet,  one  after  another,  our  women  go  to  the  in- 
telligence offices,  select  women  of  various  classes, 
take  them  to  their  homes,  and  put  them  in  entire 
charge  of  their  kitchens,  dining-rooms,  parlors, 
and  bed-chambers,  and  then  wonder  why  the  re- 
sults are  not  what  they  had  fondly  expected. 
Why  they  should  have  expected  them,  deponent 
knoweth  not,  for  why  should  people  intuitively 
understand  that  which  they  nor  their  ancestors 
never  came  in  contact  with,  and  why  should  any 
one  be  expected,  for  wages,  to  do  that  which  the 
owner  is  unable  or  unwilling  to  do  for  herself? 


518  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

If  experiment  and  change  could  be  of  any  avail, 
American  housekeepers  would  soon  have  the  best 
servants  alive,  for  their  experience  is  one  of  con- 
tinual change.  The  owner  of  a  handsome  resi- 
dence, requiring  the  attention  of  three  or  four 
assistants,  will  first  try  Irish  servants,  then 
change  for  a  little  while  to  German,  make  a  hope- 
ful grasp  at  two  or  three  Swedes,  change  again  to 
colored  people,  and  then  make  the  entire  round 
once  more  with  the  hope  that  in  some  particulars 
she  was  not  as  careful  as  she  should  have  been  in 
the  selection  of  her  people.  But  the  results  are 
generally  the  same :  slowness,  carelessness,  waste, 
lack  of  attention  and  lack  of  interest. 

Seriously,  why  should  it  be  otherwise  ?  What 
is  there  in  the  wages  and  treatment  of  the  Ameri- 
can household  servant  to  justify  any  person  of 
experience  and  self-respect  in  continuing  at  such 
work  ?  There  never  was  a  time  or  a  country  in 
which  a  woman  fully  competent  to  do  housework 
could  not  better  her  condition,  at  least  in  appear- 
ance, by  marrying ;  and  all  servants  who  are 
worthy  of  respect  for  the  manner  in  which  they 
fulfil  their  duties,  can  depend  upon  marrying 
quickly  and  marrying  well.  A  young  man  of 
good  family  once  shocked  his  acquaintances  by 
marrying  one  of  his  mother's  servants,  and  when 
held  to  account  for  it  he  explained  that  he  wasn't 
very  wealthy,  and  that  if  he  had  married  an 
American  girl  he  would  have  been  obliged  to  hire 


OUR   SERVANTS.  519 

a  foreigner  to  take  care  of  her,  so  he  preferred  to 
go  back  to  first  principles  and  marry  a  servant, 
so  as  to  have  one  less  person  to  support.  It  may 
have  been  a  brutal  and  materialistic  way  of  look- 
ing at  the  subject,  but  facts  are  facts,  and  it  is 
certain  that  the  average  American  woman  is  not 
so  brought  up  as  to  be  able  to  care  for  her  own 
house,  no  matter  how  small,  unless  she  has  out- 
side assistance  from  some  other  member  of  her 
own  sex. 

Herein  lies  the  secret  of  the  entire  trouble. 
All  work  connected  with  household  economy  ap- 
pears menial  to  the  American,  and  the  woman 
who  has  done  most  of  it  and  done  it  best  is  deter- 
mined that  her  daughter  shall  not  go  through 
what  she  has  done,  so  she  does  all  in  her  power 
to  have  the  girl  marry  well,  as  the  saying  is,  the 
meaning  of  it  being  that  she  shall  so  marry  as  to 
be  supplied  by  her  husband  with  plenty  of  ser- 
vants. It  is  bad  form  in  most  American  social 
circles  for  a  native  born  woman  to  do  her  own 
work.  Unless  she  can  hire  some  one  else  to  do 
it  for  her,  she  is  not  considered  fit  for  good 
society. 

Of  course  the  woman  who  is  incapable  of  man- 
aging her  own  household  properly  is  also  unfit 
to  instruct  servants  and  keep  them  properly  at 
their  work.  In  any  business  house  requiring 
several  assistants,  the  principal  would  think  him- 
self unfit  to  conduct  the  business  unless  he  were 


520  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

competent  to  instruct  all  his  clerks  in  their  re- 
spective duties  and  to  oversee  them  in  such  man- 
ner that  they  should  neither  be  neglectful  nor 
wasteful.  To  demand  as  much  of  his  wife  would 
probably  bring  about  an  unpleasant  family  scene. 
It  is  not  that  American  women  are  not  willing  to 
carry  their  share  of  the  burdens  of  life,  but  that, 
as  a  body,  they  are  incompetent  to  do  so.  They 
have  had  no  training  in  this  direction.  That  a 
woman  who  is  born,  reared,  and  married  in  pov- 
erty should  not  wish  that  her  daughter  should 
go  through  all  of  her  own  experiences  is  quite 
natural  arid  motherly,  but  that  she  should  not 
give  her  necessary  instructions  in  household 
economy  is  not  so  explicable,  nor  is  it  defensible 
from  any  standpoint  whatever.  Looking  at  the 
subject  from  no  standpoint  but  that  of  entire  sel- 
fishness, it  is  advisable  that  a  young  wife  should 
know  how  to  care  for  herself  and  all  that  belongs 
to  her,  and  unless  she  obtains  her  information 
from  her  own  parents,  it  is  quite  unlikely  that 
she  will  ever  get  it  anywhere  else.  The  period 
of  the  honeymoon  is  a  very  bad  one  in  which  to 
take  lessons  in  any  matter  concerning  the  prin- 
cipal affairs  of  life,  and  her  experience  in  obtain- 
ing her  first  and  most  important  lessons  in  this 
subject  under  the  eye  of  her  husband,  is,  to  say 
the  least,  humiliating. 

That  men  also  should  know  a  great  deal  about 
such  subjects  cannot  be  denied,  but  that  their 


OUR  SERVANTS.  521 

education  in  domestic  affairs  has  been  neglected 
is  no  reason  why  the  same  should  be  said  regard- 
ing that  member  of  the  family  most  of  whose  life 
is  spent  within  the  four  walls  of  home,  and  who, 
by  the  authorization  of  society  since  the  world 
began,  has  been  responsible  for  the  conduct  of 
home  affairs  ;  while  the  man  is  charged  with  the 
obtaining  of  the  necessities  of  life  and  the  pro- 
tection of  his  family  from  ills  from  which  appar- 
ently women  are  unable  to  protect  themselves. 
When  "  the  late  unpleasantness  "  ended,  great 
hopes  were  expressed  by  those  who  had  suffered 
from  incompetent  servants  that  the  freeing  of  the 
blacks  would  give  Northern  housekeepers  an  op- 
portunity to  obtain  first-class  servants  to  any  ex- 
tent. But  soon  the  housekeepers  of  the  North 
discovered,  to  their  horror,  that  the  African- Amer- 
ican woman  had  no  special  genius  for  that  sort 
of  work,  and  little  by  little  the  truth  was  divulged 
that  those  who  knew  anything  about  it  had  ob- 
tained their  information  directly  from  white 
women,  who,  regardless  of  wealth  and  social  po- 
sition, had  paid  very  close  attention  to  all  the 
details  of  caring  for  their  own  homes. 

Just  as  bad  meals  could  be  obtained  in  South- 
ern palatial  mansions  during  the  good  old  slavery 
days  as  in  any  farmer's  house  in  the  American 
backwoods.  The  condition  of  the  house,  from 
the  kitchen  and  dining-room  to  the  parlors  and 
chambers,  was  not  at  all  dependent  upon  the  col- 


522  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

ored  people  who  did  the  details  of  the  work,  but 
upon  the  head  of  the  family,  or  perhaps  her 
daughters,  who  followed  their  people  from  place 
to  place,  gave  them  minute  instructions  as  to 
what  to  do,  and  remained  to  see  that  the  work 
was  properly  done.  There  are  fine  old  aristo- 
cratic Southern  ladies  still  alive  who  tell  with 
great  pride  of  the  number  of  jars  of  preserves 
which  they  "  put  up,"  and  of  the  pies  and  cakes 
which  they  made  with  their  own  hands  about 
Christmas  time,  and  of  the  close  attention  they 
paid  to  the  stuffing  of  a  turkey  or  the  dressing 
of  a  bit  of  meat  or  the  preparation  of  vegetables 
which  were  to  go  on  the  table  at  a  time  when 
some  distinguished  guest  was  expected.  It  was 
by  such  means,  not  merely  by  industrious  colored 
hands,  that  the  South  earned  its  reputation  for 
elegant  hospitality,  and  intelligent  Southerners 
themselves  are  authority  for  the  statement  that 
such  hospitality  was  no  more  common  below 
Mason  and  Dixon's  line  than  it  was  north  of  that 
mythical  boundary. 

At  the  present  time,  in  all  the  large  cities  and 
in  some  of  the  large  towns  also,  the  cooking 
school  is  doing  a  great  service  to  future  genera- 
tions by  preparing  a  large  number  of  young 
women  for  some  responsibilities  of  their  coming 
married  condition.  But,  though  the  harvest  is 
abundant,  the  laborers  are  few  in  comparison 
with  the  great  number  who  are  standing  idle. 


OUR  SERVANTS.  523 

To  American  women  of  every  class  cooking  and 
other  household  work  still  is  regarded  as  drudgery, 
and  no  attention  is  paid  to  it,  except  upon  com- 
pulsion. This  is  a  disagreeable  fact,  but  facts 
must  be  looked  in  the  face,  no  matter  from  what 
source  they  may  be  derived. 

Occasionally  a  few  bright,  brave  souls  rise  in 
revolt  and  declare  that  they  will  settle  the  ques- 
tion by  having  nothing  more  to  do  with  servants 
of  any  kind.  Were  their  courage  equal  to  their 
spirit  they  possibly  would  find  great  relief  in 
acting  according  to  their  convictions.  To  care 
for  one's  home  is  not  always  an  impossibility. 
Perhaps  no  woman  can  properly  look  after  a 
large  city  residence  full  of  elegant  furniture  and 
containing  a  great  many  articles  which  require 
daily  attention,  besides  all  the  duties  of  the 
cooking  department  and  the  dining-room ;  still 
to  women  the  suggestion  has  so  frequently  oc- 
curred that  will  not  be  regarded  as  impertinent 
on  the  part  of  men,  Does  life  consist  in  keeping 
up  such  appearances  ?  Whatever  the  future  may 
have  in  store  for  us,  our  earthly  life  consists  only 
in  what  we  may  have  here.  And  to  spend  twenty, 
thirty,  forty  or  fifty  years  in  constant  apprehen- 
sion and  trepidation  about  household  affairs  is 
certainly  to  live  a  very  unhappy  life,  no  matter 
how  much  the  torment  may  be  assuaged  by  the 
affections  of  husband  and  children  and  friends. 

It  is  possible  to  so  live  that  all  the  work  of  a 


524  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

house  can  be  done  by  one  person  and  still  give 
some  leisure  for  recreation  and  for  employment 
not  of  the  class  commonly,  though  often  mis- 
takenly, called  menial.  An  army  officer's  wife 
living  in  a  house  of  three  or  four  rooms  at  a 
fort  or  post  often  is  quite  as  much  of  a  lady  in 
appearance,  has  quite  as  charming  a  home  and 
quite  as  much  time  to  enjoy  herself  as  the  wife 
of  the  most  envied  millionaire  in  any  of  our 
large  cities.  The  difference  of  condition  is  re- 
sponsible for  her  good  fortune.  It  consists 
simply  in  the  inability  to  have  a  very  large  house, 
and  consequently  she  has  time  to  have  essentials 
as  well  as  appearances  managed  entirely  by  her 
own  hand  and  has  the  satisfaction  of  knowing 
that  whatever  is  done  is  well  done — a  satisfaction 
which  is  enjoyed  by  very  few  of  the  women 
whose  lives  seem  most  to  be  envied  by  young 
women  who  are  unable  to  see  below  the  surface 
of  household  affairs. 

Among  the  wives  of  American  mechanics, 
laborers  and  farmers  there  are  some  hundreds  of 
thousands  who  have  good  taste  and  high  intelli- 
gence, yet  nevertheless  do  all  their  household 
work  with  their  own  hands,  and  from  appear- 
ances it  is  impossible  to  believe  that  they  suffer 
either  mentally  or  physically  by  this  sort  of  re- 
sponsibility. Of  course  in  a  cottage  of  three  or 
four  rooms  it  is  impossible  to  give  a  large  and 
elegant  reception,  much  less  a  ball.  Neverthe- 


OUR   SERVANTS.  525 

less  a  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance 
of  the  things  that  he  possesseth,  and  many  a 
woman  of  wealth  and  social  position  has  ad- 
mitted to  herself  and  occasionally  to  her  ac- 
quaintances that  the  abundance  of  possession  is 
the  greatest  drawback  from  the  happiness  of  life. 
Ambition,  and  not  desire  for  genuine  comfort,  is 
at  the  bottom  of  a  great  deal  of  the  trouble  of 
American  housekeepers,  and  until  it  is  looked 
squarely  in  the  face  and  its  responsibilities  de- 
liberately accepted  or  successfully  dodged,  it  is 
not  fair  to  attribute  its  penalties  to  some  other 
cause.  False  pride  is  one  of  the  commonest  of 
the  human  faults  that  are  talked  about,  and  cer- 
tainly there  is  room  for  a  great  deal  of  com- 
ment on  the  subject  regarding  the  present  stand- 
ard of  ambition  among  women  who  are  at  the 
head  of  American  homes.  If  life  consists  solely 
in  keeping  up  appearances,  women  ambitious  for 
social  position  are  right  in  enduring  all  the  tor- 
ments to  which  they  are  at  present  subjected  by 
their  troubte  in  obtaining  competent  domestic 
servants.  But,  if  the  pleasure  of  life  is  in  living, 
it  may  be  well  for  some  of  them  to  pause  a  while 
and  ask  themselves  whether  it  would  not  be 
pleasanter,  better,  happier  and  more  ennobling  to 
go  back  to  the  manner  of  the  old  patriarchs  who 
considered  themselves  fortunate  when  they  had 
a  tent  consisting  of  one  single  apartment  to  shel- 
ter them  and  all  of  their  household  goods.  They 


526  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

may  not  have  been  able  to  feel  very  proud  in 
such  circumstances,  but  certainly  the  comfort  for 
which  the  majority  of  wide-awake  American 
women  are  sighing  at  the  present  time  was  theirs 
in  larger  degree  than  can  be  boasted  of  by  any 
class  of  American  women  of  the  present  genera- 
tion. 

There  are  but  two  methods  of  overcoming  the 
current  and  widespread  discontent  and  torment 
of  American  housekeepers  regarding  domestic 
service.  One  is  to  select  servants  as  carefully 
almost  as  a  woman  would  select  a  husband,  and 
then  give  unlimited  time  and  attention  to  their 
training.  The  other  is  to  have  fewer  large 
houses,  live  in  few  and  small  apartments  and 
charge  themselves  with  all  the  work  necessary  to 
be  done.  That  the  latter  plan  will  be  followed 
is  too  much  to  hope  for,  and  probably  the  blame 
for  not  adopting  it,  should  any  blame  be  de- 
manded, should  fall  as  heavily  upon  husbands  as 
upon  wives,  for  what  one  has  not  to  do  himself 
seems  what  is  easiest  done.  Husbands  are  not 
necessarily  brutes,  but  they  have  their  own  ideas 
of  what  their  home  should  be,  and  as  the  person 
who  doesn't  have  to  do  a  thing  is  the  one  who  ap- 
parently knows  most  about  doing  it,  they  fre- 
quently have  a  way  of  assuming  that  whatever 
they  wish  about  a  house  can  be  accomplished  as 
a  matter  of  course  by  their  wives.  Some  thou- 
sands, perhaps  some  millions,  of  untimely  graves -" 


OUR   SERVANTS.  527 

have  been  filled  in  deference  to  this  amiable  but 
mistaken  supposition. 

As  to  the  training  of  persons  to  be  servants, 
and  as  to  their  further  treatment  so  that  they 
will  be  willing  to  maintain  their  humble  position, 
the  subject  is  far  too  large  to  admit  of  proper  dis- 
cussion here,  let  alone  of  any  conclusion.  It  re- 
quires a  high  grade  of  intelligence,  patience  and 
perseverance  to  impart  the  rudiments  of  educa- 
tion to  small  children ;  but  far  more  is  required  to 
make  a  fit  servant  out  of  such  raw  human  ma- 
terial as  can  be  obtained  without  too  much  trouble 
from  the  ordinary  sources,  in  the  United  States, 
of  such  specimens  of  human  nature.  Even  after 
raw  material  is  obtained  it  is  not  certain  that  it 
will  receive  proper  treatment  at  the  hands  of 
those  who  consider  themselves  immensely  su- 
perior to  it  by  nature,  education  and  position. 

In  the  meantime,  the  great  mass  of  the  Ameri- 
can people,  those  who  are  too  poor  to  keep  ser- 
vants at  all,  are  not  realizing  how  great  a  torment 
they  are  escaping.  Poverty  has  its  bad  features, 
but  one  unspeakable  blessing  goes  with  it,  and 
that  is  that  the  wife  of  a  poor  man  does  not 
have  her  temper  and  sense  and  pocket  wounded 
many  times  a  day  by  incompetent  hirelings. 
Housework  is  hard  even  at  the  best,  and  it  does 
not  end  between  daybreak  until  bed-time,  but  the 
poor  man's  wife  has  at  least  the  consolation  of 
knowing  how  everything  in  her  house  really  is, 


528  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

a  consolation  which  is  denied  the  wife  of  the  mil- 
lionaire all  over  the  country.  "  I  never  knew," 
said  a  poor  journalist  once,  "  why  it  was  that  the 
wife  of  Blank,  the  millionaire,  a  lady  of  good 
birth,  education,  refinement  and  happily  married, 
sometimes  had  an  air  of  settled  melancholy  on 
her  face,  even  when  she  was  in  brilliant  com- 
pany, of  which  she  was  herself  an  ornament,  but 
I  found  out  the  secret  of  it  one  day  when  she 
called  in  her  carriage  upon  my  wife — we  were  liv- 
ing in  a  cheap  flat  in  a  rather  poor  portion  of  the 
town — and  made  inquiries  regarding  a  servant 
who  had  once  lived  with  us.  The  solicitude  in 
her  countenance  I  never  shall  forget.  I  spite  of 
all  her  husband's  money  she  couldn't  be  happy, 
and  it  was  all  on  account  of  the  servants." 

Most  wives  don't  know  what  torment  they  are 
missing. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

OUR  LITERATURE. 

AMERICANS  are  the  greatest  readers  on  earth. 
Any  one  can  tell  you  this — any  one  from  a  col- 
lege president  down  to  the  newsboy  on  a  railway 
train. 

They  read  pretty  much  everything,  and  never 
are  at  a  loss  for  ways  of  obtaining  something  to 
read. 

Books  are  cheaper  here  than  anywhere  else  in 
the  world,  thanks  to  immunity  from  arrest  and 
punishment  for  theft  of  literary  property.  We 
can  take  the  brains  of  all  Europe,  as  expressed 
in  printed  pages  on  the  other  side  of  the  At- 
lantic, and  reprint  them  here  without  fear  of  the 
sheriff,  and  what  man  can  do  without  fear  of  the 
law  he  is  likely  to  do  GO  long  as  he  sees  any 
money  in  it. 

There  is  no  section,  State  or  town  so  poor  that 
its  people  cannot  find  something  to  read  when 
they  want  it.  The  inhabitants  of  a  township 
whose  centre  is  nothing  but  a  post-office,  a  store 
and  a  blacksmith  shop,  may  be  too  poor  to  buy 

34  (529) 


530  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

a  paper  of  pins,  unless  they  have  credit  with  the 
storekeeper,  but  they  always  are  able  to  find 
something  to  read.  If  there  is  nothing  else, 
they  can  fall  back  upon  the  Sunday-school  books, 
and  nowadays  Sunday-school  libraries  are  not  as 
bad  as  they  used  to  be.  Almost  any  book  that 
is  respectable  and  has  any  feature  of  interest  can 
be  worked  into  a  Sunday-school  library  by  an 
enterprising  publisher.  A  Methodist  parson, 
who  was  congratulated  a  short  time  ago  on  his 
great  success  in  organizing  a  Sunday-school 
in  a  sparsely  settled  district  in  one  of  the  West- 
ern States,  said,  with  a  long  sigh  :  "  These  chil- 
dren don't  come  here  to  learn  the  truths  of  the 
Gospel ;  they  come  to  get  books  for  their  families 
to  read  during  the  week."  Perhaps  the  old  man 
was  right  in  his  fear  that  the  religious  work  of 
his  parish  was  not  going  on  as  well  as  he  wished ; 
he  certainly  was  entirely  correct  regarding  the 
demand  for  the  books.  Children  who  were  dull 
and  listless  while  the  prayers  and  singing  and 
lessons  were  going  on  brightened  up  quickly 
when  the  librarians  came  in  to  distribute  the 
books  which  had  been  asked  for,  and  the  worst 
boys  in  town  would  cheerfully  forego  base-ball, 
swimming  parties,  watermelon  stealing,  cock- 
fighting  and  card-playing  for  an  hour  or  two  on 
Sunday  for  the  sake  of  borrowing  a  book  upon 
which  to  spend  the  spare  hours  of  the  week  that 
was  to  follow.  A  good  many  people  were  drawn 


OUR    LITERATURE.  531 

to  Jesus  by  the  loaves  and  fishes,  but  books  are 
the  most  successful  bait  of  the  modern  church. 
But   the    Sunday-school   library  is  the   most 
modest  of  the   many  sources  from   which   the 
poorer  class  of  Americans  draw  their  reading 
matter.     There  are  at  least  a  dozen  series  of 
novels  being  published  in  the  United  States  at 
the  present  time  on  a  plan  which  enables  the 
publishers   to  dodge  the  postal  laws  regarding 
printed  matter  by  assuming  to  be  serial  publica- 
tions.    Under  the  law  any  book  sent  out  by  a 
publisher  should  pay  postage  at  the  rate  of  half 
a  cent  an  ounce ;  but  a  library,  so  called,  may 
send  out  its  publications  under  the  rules  govern- 
ing serials  of  every  kind,  which  can  be  paid  for  at 
the  post-ofEce  at  the  rate  of  two  cents  per  pound ; 
consequently  for  several   years  there  has  been 
an  absolute  inundation  of   fiction.     Stimulated 
by  this  feature  of  the  law,  a  number  of  enter- 
prising  men    have   reprinted   all   the   standard 
novels  of  the  past  century  in  cheap  form  and 
distributed  them  broadcast  over  the  entire  coun- 
try; and,  to  do  them  justice,  have  also  issued  a 
number  of  histories  and  other  standard  works 
in   the   same  manner,  and  as  people  have  pur- 
chased them,  it   is   reasonable  to  suppose  that 
they  have  read  them. 

But  books  are  not  all  that  is  read  by  that 
great  portion  of  our  people  who  have  a  great 
deal  of  leisure  time  and  no  sufficient  means  of 


532  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

enjoying  it  beyond  reading.  A  million  maga- 
zines are  circulated  every  month,  and  twice  as 
many  weeklies.  Some  time  ago  the  newspapers 
began  to  realize  this  fact,  and  straightway  they 
supplemented  their  Saturday  or  Sunday  editions 
with  additional  sheets  containing  miscellaneous 
reading-matter  of  all  kinds,  some  of  it  as  good 
as  any  that  appears  in  the  magazines.  The 
worst  of  it  is  quite  as  good  as  the  majority  of 
current  novels ;  and  as  the  highest  price  of  a 
newspaper  in  the  United  States  is  five  cents  per 
copy,  and  the  supplementary  sheets  of  some 
papers  contain  as  much  as  an  entire  magazine, 
there  is  no  lack  of  reading  matter  for  any  one 
who  has  the  price  of  a  glass  of  beer  or  a  cheap 
cigar. 

Not  only  is  the  supply  of  printed  matter  great, 
but  the  demand  is  being  increased  in  many  ways 
that  are  entirely  admirable.  There  are  now  sev- 
eral societies  which  at  a  very  trifling  cost  advise 
people  what  to  read,  and  in  what  order  to  take 
certain  books  in  hand.  Some  of  them — notably 
the  well-known  Chautauqua  Society — have  read- 
ing circles  under  advice  and  partial  supervision 
which  number  as  many  people  as  the  students 
of  all  the  colleges  in  the  country.  A  number 
of  societies  of  similar  purpose  are  scattered  about 
the  country,  each  with  its  list  of  books  which  its 
members  are  advised  to  read — books  which  are 
carefully  selected  by  men  whose  literary  judg- 


OUR   LITERATURE.  533 

ment  would  be  accepted  in  any  intelligent  circle 
in  the  Union. 

One  result  of  the  American  avidity  for  read- 
ing matter  is  that  the  guild  of  American  authors 
is  becoming  quite  as  numerous  as  that  of  any 
other  country  in  the  world.  The  American  who 
does  not  write  a  book  is  almost  a  curiosity  at  the 
present  time,  and  generally  thinks  it  necessary 
to  explain  why  he  has  not  already  done  some- 
thing of  the  kind,  and  when  and  how  he  would 
be  able  to  do  it.  The  stories  which  are  pub- 
lished in  cheap  form  in  the  United  States  are 
largely  from  foreign  pens,  but  it  is  known  to 
those  who  observe  the  subject  closely  that  the 
number  of  American  authors  is  increasing  more 
rapidly  than  in  any  other  country.  Any  one 
here  who  knows  anything  on  a  particular  sub- 
ject, or  who  has  any  reputation  or  prominence 
for  any  reason  whatever,  is  asked  to  write  a 
book,  and  such  invitations  are  very  seldom  de- 
clined ;  for  if  the  man  cannot  write,  he  can  at 
least  hire  some  one  to  put  his  thoughts  into 
words.  Men  who  in  older  countries  would  be 
ashamed  to  take  pen  in  hand  at  all  to  produce 
anything  for  publication,  have  here  received  enor- 
mous compensation  for  single  volumes  on  sub- 
jects with  which  they  merely  were  acquainted, 
not  those  upon  which  they  had  any  reason  to  be 
quoted  as  authority. 

Even  in  the  serious  department  of  history  we 


534  OUR   COUNTRY'S   FUTURE. 

have  recently  seen  numerous  books  from  men 
notoriously  unfit  in  point  of  judgment  to  inflict 
anything  of  the  sort  upon  a  confiding  public. 
But  money  is  offered  as  an  inducement,  pen  and 
ink  are  cheap,  type-writers  are  plentiful,  so  the 
work  goes  merrily  on,  and  it  may  need  all  the 
wisdom  of  another  generation  to  correct  the  mis- 
takes which  have  been  made  in  print  by  writers 
of  the  present  time. 

Nevertheless,  the  steady  demand  which  seems 
to  be  profitable  to  both  authors  and  publishers  is 
inciting  the  intelligent  and  educated  class  to 
efforts  which  once  would  have  been  impossible 
except  to  the  very  small  number  who  were  suffi- 
ciently well  off  to  regard  their  literary  work  as 
a  labor  of  love,  and  to  expect  no  compensation 
except  what  might  come  from  approving  con- 
sciences. The  modern  novelist  frequently  gets 
more  for  a  single  volume  than  the  elder  Haw- 
thorne received  for  all  the  books  of  his  incom- 
parable series.  Literature  has  become  a  business 
as  well  as  an  intellectual  occupation.  Mr.  Ban- 
croft probable  expended  more  money  upon  his 
well-known  "History  of  the  United  States"  than 
was  received  by  those  who  sold  his  books  at 
retail,  but  nowadays  the  writer  of  an  alleged 
history  can  count  upon  as  much  pay  for  a  has- 
tily prepared  book  as  a  prominent  lawyer  would 
expect  to  receive  for  handling  a  case  requiring 
long  study  and  effort. 


OUR   LITERATURE.  535 

These  things  being  true — and  authors  and 
publishers  will  assure  the  public  that  they  are — 
it  is  entirely  safe  to  assume  that  we  are  soon  to 
have  a  highly  successful  and  valuable  class  of 
writers  in  the  United  States.  "  The  coming 
book,"  an  expression  which  must  soon  go  out  of 
date,  may  be  a  history,  a  poem,  a  biography  or  a 
novel,  but  there  will  be  so  many  more  books  than 
heretofore,  that  a  work  of  great  merit  in  any  de- 
partment of  literature  will  possibly  have  to  wait 
until  another  generation  for  proper  recognition. 
There  is  so  much  to  read  that  no  book-worm 
can  keep  pace  with  the  publishers'  presses.  The 
last  new  novel  may  be  very  good  or  very  bad,  but 
whichever  may  be  the  case  the  general  public 
stands  very  little  chance  of  knowing,  for  before 
it  has  had  time  to  reach  the  hands  of  many 
readers  a  dozen  more  have  come  from  the  press, 
and  it  is  only  chance  or  an  exceptional  degree 
of  merit,  which  it  is  unfair  to  expect  of  any  one 
more  than  once  in  a  century,  that  will  bring  a 
book  properly  to  notice. 

For  instance,  some  years  ago  Gen.  Lew  Wal- 
lace wrote  a  story  entitled  "  Ben-Hur,"  which 
sold  fairly  for  a  little  while,  but  made  no  great  ex- 
citement in  the  literary  world.  Fortunately  for 
the  author  and  the  book,  which  certainly  was  an 
original  and  meritorious  production,  Gen.  Wal- 
lace had  an  immense  host  of  personal  friends 
who  little  by  little  had  the  book  brought  to  their 


536  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE 

notice ;  they  read  it  and  talked  about  it,  until 
finally,  by  this  unsolicited  and  unpaid  advertis- 
ing, his  story  became  famous  and  is  now  in  its 
third  hundredth  thousand  of  circulation,  with  a 
promise  of  going  on  perhaps  indefinitely. 

Two  years  ago  Mr.  Edward  Bellamy  wrote  his 
"  Looking  Backward."  It  was  a  thoughtful,  able 
story,  touching  many  of  the  nearest  interests  of 
humanity,  but  it  sold  only  a  few  thousand  copies, 
and  seemed  making  its  way  to  the  backs  of  book- 
sellers' shelves,  when  two  or  three  essays  upon 
the  general  subject  recalled  attention  to  it.  The 
people  of  a  single  city — which,  of  course,  was 
Boston — took  it  up  first  as  a  fad,  and  afterwards 
as  a  serious  study,  and  now  the  book  is  in  gen- 
eral demand  and  promises  to  renew  and  widely 
stimulate  public  discussion  of  a  very  old  sub- 
ject which  must  come  to  the  surface  once  in  a 
little  while  until  perhaps  it  becomes  a  recognized 
principle  of  human  conduct  and  existence. 

These  are  merely  two  of  many  books  of 
great  value,  or  at  least  great  interest,  which 
have  been  saved  from  the  general  literary 
deluge  by  means  which  seem  merely  accidental. 
Of  the  many  which  have  been  lost  perhaps  irre- 
vocably the  public  has  no  idea.  Hawthorne 
himself,  to  whom  allusion  has  already  been  made, 
was  not  read  one-twentieth  as  much  by  the 
people  of  his  own  day  as  now.  Carlyle,  who 
probably  is  more  read  in  America  than  in 


OUR    LITERATURE.  537 

Europe,  owes  his  popularity  here  and  the  great 
sale  of  his  works  to  the  personal  efforts  of  his 
friend,  Mr.  Hnierson,  who  insisted  that  the 
book  should  be  published  in  this  country,  but 
who  would  not  have  succeeded  had  not  his  own 
publishers  had  reasons  for  wishing  to  oblige  him 
personally. 

These  facts  regarding  literature  are  not  pecu- 
liar to  America.  Many  years  ago  an  English- 
man named  Charles  Wells  wrote  a  dramatic 
poem  which  did  not  pass  its  first  edition  of  a 
few  hundred  copies.  About  a  quarter  of  a 
century  later  Swinburne  chanced  upon  a  copy 
of  the  bookr  and  wrote  a  review  of  it,  which  set  all 
lovers  of  dramatic  poetry  to  looking  for  the  poem 
itself,  and  now  it  is  making  its  way  through 
edition  after  edition.  Only  ten  years  ago  Brown- 
ing's latest  long  poem,  whatever  it  may  have  been, 
was  refused  successively  by  nearly  all  reputable 
American  publishers,  yet  the  Browning  craze  is 
now  a  matter  of  history. 

The  meaning  of  all  this  is  that  books  come 
from  the  press  far  more  rapidly  than  people  can 
read  them,  but  the  ease  of  circulation  of  litera- 
ture in  the  United  States  promises  to  change 
all  that.  There  is  now  scarcely  a  town  of  two 
thousand  people  in  the  United  States  which  has 
not  its  circulating  library,  and  which  has  not  also 
some  people  who  are  thoughtful,  intelligent  and 
influential.  A  book  getting  into  such  a  library 


538  OUR   COUNTRY'S    FUTURE. 

is  sure,  sooner  or  later,  to  find  a  large  number 
of  readers.  The  individual  reader  is  the  best 
advertisement  that  either  author  or  publisher  can 
ask  for,  and  though  the  first  edition  may  be  very 
small,  so  small  that  the  publisher  hesitates  to 
reprint,  nevertheless  in  time  a  book  of  any  value 
is  sure  to  be  brought  properly  to  the  attention 
of  the  public. 

There  is  every  reason,  therefore,  to  believe  that 
our  native  authors,  and  many  people  who  can 
write  and  should  write  but  have  not  yet  felt  en- 
couraged to  do  so,  will  yet  be  stimulated  to  do  their 
best  work.  A  prominent  publisher  in  New  York 
was  once  asked — the  question  being  suggested 
by  a  poor  book  which  he  had  published  on  a  very 
interesting  subject — why  he  did  not  secure  a  bet- 
ter man  to  write  it  ?  "  For  the  best  reason  in 
the  world,"  said  he;  "the  men  who  could  do  justice 
to  the  subject  are  all  making  their  living  in  some 
other  way  and  have  to  pay  close  attention  to  their 
business.  They  can't  afford  to  write  books." 
This  lack  of  financial  encouragement  is  rapidly 
disappearing.  The  man  who  has  anything  to  say 
in  this  country  and  knows  how  to  say  it  properly 
can  now  afford  to  give  time  and  thought  to  his 
subject,  with  the  assurance  that,  when  he  is  ready 
to  write  and  tc  print,  he  will  find  readers. 

It  does  not  follow  that  everything  written  with 
earnestness  and  sincerity  of  purpose  is  worth  at- 
tention. "  Great  minds  think  alike,"  but  not  all 


OUR   LITERATURE.  539 

great  minds  are  properly  educated,  and  we  get  an 
immense  number  of  books,  supposed  by  their 
authors  to  be  original,  whose  contents  are  mere 
skeletons  of  what  has  been  better  expressed  by 
some  one  else.  The  publisher  often  finds  him- 
self in  the  position  of  the  patent  office  ex- 
aminer. It  is  well  known  that  at  the  patent  office 
applications  in  large  numbers  are  received  every 
week  for  letters  patent  on  supposed  inventions 
which  were  made  long  ago  by  some  one  else,  but 
of  which  the  latest  applicant  was  entirely  ignor- 
ant. Men  of  thoughtful  and  inventive  minds 
reproduce  each  other  in  every  clime.  There  is 
not  a  savage  tribe  on  the  face  of  the  earth  which 
did  not  find  out  for  itself  the  art  of  making  cutting 
tools,  building  houses,  constructing  boats,  cooking 
utensils  and  whatever  else  might  be  necessary  to 
domestic  life  and  its  many  necessities.  The  same 
holds  in  literature.  Certain  self-evident  truths 
of  philosophy  or  ethics,  certain  plots  and  situa- 
tions in  fiction,  are  common  to  all  classes  of 
people ;  and  the  consequence  is  that  our  literature 
is  burdened  with  material  of  every  kind,  from  the 
highest  theology  to  the  lowest  sensation,  which 
seems  mere  plagiarism  on  something  which  has 
preceded.  Even  Longfellow,  who  is  nearer  the 
American  heart  than  any  other  of  our  poets,  was 
persistently  accused  of  plagiarism  because  he  ex- 
pressed thoughts  and  ideas  which  had  been  said 
as  well,  sometimes  better,  by  older  poets  ;  yet 


540  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

Longfellow  was  supposed  to  be  a  man  of  wide 
reading. 

But  American  facilities  for  reading  and  for 
learning  all  that  lias  been  said  by  the  wiser  minds 
and  more  brilliant  wits  of  other  times  is  bound  to 
change  all  that,  and  probably  within  the  lifetime 
of  the  present  generation.  Besides  from  the  in- 
cidents, peculiarities  and  necessities  of  our  own 
national  life,  our  literature  is  now  extending  into 
all  fields  heretofore  monopolized  by  the  wiser 
minds  of  the  old  world.  American  essays,  poems 
and  novels  are  now  frequently  reprinted  in 
Europe  and  translated  into  many  languages. 
Many  American  novels  may  now  be  found  in 
several  of  the  older  languages  of  Europe,  and  the 
popular  author  of  the  present  day  does  not  con- 
sider his  work  done  until  he  has  sent  copies  of  his 
original  manuscript  to  at  least  two  European 
publishers.  The  French  Revue  des  Deux 
Mondes,  which  is  supposed  to  be  the  most  fas- 
tidious of  foreign  publications  in  its  selection  of 
material,  has  given  a  great  deal  of  space  to 
American  novelists  and  poets,  and  again  and 
again  English  novelists  have  complained  that 
some  upstart  American  was  crowding  their  books 
off  of  the  railway  station  news-stands.  Emer- 
son's essays,  Longfellow's  poems,  and  Howell's 
novels  may  be  found  in  any  bookstore  in  Eng- 
land, and  it  is  not  hard  to  find  them  on  the  con- 
tinent. There  are  half  a  dozen  different  editions 


OUR    LITERATURE.  541 

of  Poe's  poems  in  the  French  language  alone. 
American  historical  works  not  entirely  on  Ameri- 
can topics  may  be  found  in  several  European 
languages,  and  are  held  in  high  esteem  by  foreign 
historians.  One  historical  work  published  in 
the  United  States  two  or  three  years  ago  has  al- 
ready been  translated  into  every  language  of 
Northern  Europe.  How  many  more  there  may 
be  deponent  knoweth  not. 

All  this  is  cheering,  not  only  to  national  pride, 
but  because  there  are  features  in  American  liter- 
ature which  are  superior  to  those  of  any  older 
nation.  This  is  noticeably  true  of  our  fiction,  in 
which  there  are  elements  of  cheerfulness,  hope 
and  humor,  which  are  almost  entirely  lacking  in 
the  light  literature,  so-called,  of  other  countries. 
When  one  speaks  of  a  foreign  novel  from  any 
press  but  that  of  Great  Britain  the  supposition 
naturally  is  that  it  relates  entirely  to  the  closer 
relations  of  the  sexes ;  that  the  end  of  it  will  not 
be  entirely  pleasing ;  and  that,  however  strong  its 
plot  and  diction,  it  will  iiot  be  what  is  called 
"  entirely  proper," — it  will  not  be  a  book  which 
one  can  safely  take  home  without  reading  and 
leave  on  the  table  of  his  sitting-room  for  wife, 
children  and  visitors  to  pick  up  at  random. 

Some  of  that  sort  of  stuff  has  come  from  the 
American  press  of  late  years,  more's  the  pity,  but 
it  promises  to  be  rather  sporadic  and  accidental 
than  a  prominent  feature  of  our  literature.  It 


542  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

resembles  an  outbreak  of  yellow  fever  in  a  North- 
ern port — something  which  may  get  there  by 
accident  and  do  mischief  for  a  little  while,  but 
which  cannot  effect  a  permanent  lodgment. 
The  mass  of  unclean  stories  which  ventured  into 
the  daylight  of  print  after  the  publication  of 
Amelie  Rives'  sensational  novel  is  already  begin- 
ning to  disappear.  When  for  a  day  or  two  a  city 
chances  to  fall  under  mob  law,  the  world  seems 
turned  upside  down  for  the  time  being  ;  but  the 
better  sense  and  strength  of  the  community  soon 
come  to  the  rescue  and  the  dangerous -element  is 
suppressed.  A  similar  result  is  already  being 
accomplished  regarding  pernicious  fiction.  Pub- 
lishers who  have  hastily  accepted  stories  which 
their  professional  readers  pronounced  "  strong  " 
are  beginning  to  apologize  for  offering  such  stuff 
to  the  public. 

American  literature  will  be  marked  by  a  hopeful, 
cheerful,  clean,  energetic  spirit,  and  as  such  it  will 
give  our  people  what  they  cannot  easily  obtain 
from  the  presses  of  foreign  countries.  We  have 
faults  enough,  of  which  mention  has  frequently 
been  made  in  this  book,  but  lack  of  respectability 
and  of  hopefulness  are  not  among  them.  Our 
novels  are  cleaner  than  those  of  any  other  land ; 
our  history  in  the  main  is  decided^  cheering  and 
stimulating  in  its  influence  ;  our  poetry,  although 
perhaps  not  as  elegant  as  that  of  Europe,  has  a  great 
deal  more  of  inspiration  in  it  for  readers,  and  our 


OUR   LITERATURE.  543 

fiction  is  based  upon  the  life  of  our  own  people, 
which  is  in  the  main  respectable.     Incidents  and 
scenes  as  bad  as  any  that  the  world  can  supply 
may  of  course  be  found  in  American  life  by  those 
who  choose  to  look  for  them,  but  they  are  not 
likely  to  be  written  up  or  read  to  any  extent, 
except  by  the  vulgar  classes.     Books  about  which 
intelligent  and  cultivated  people  on  the  continent 
will  talk  freely  in  social  circles  are  scarcely  toler- 
ated here ;  some  of  them  are  reprinted,  but  the 
editions  as  a  rule  are  very  small.     Translations 
of  continental  novels  have  generally  failed  dis- 
mally in  a  commercial  sense  in  the  United  States. 
There  are  a  few  exceptions,  but  the  rule  is  so 
distinct  that  no  one  of  literary  taste,  ability  and 
intelligence  now  wastes  his  time  in  translating 
foreign  novels  in  the  hope  of  securing  American 
publishers.     The  native  writer  as  a  rule  is  not  as 
skilful  as  his  foreign  brother,  but  he  successfully 
tells  our  people  of  what  they  wish  to  know.    He  is 
in  sympathy  with  their  thoughts,  tastes,  customs 
and  aspirations,  so  his  stories  and  essays  are  found 
in  all  our  weekly  papers  and  magazines,  while 
more  skilful  productions  of  foreign  pens,  which 
might  be  had  for  nothing,  are  generally  excluded. 
There  is  no  longer  any  question  as  to  whether 
we  shall  have  a  literature  of  our  own.     We  have 
it.     It  is  increasing  in  volume  more  rapidly  than 
our  people  can  follow  it.     It  is  a  good  sign.     It 
means  that  we  are  a  "  peculiar  people  " — not  per- 


544  OUR   COUNTRY \S    FUTURE. 

haps  in  the  sense  in  which  the  expression  was 
used  regarding  the  ancient  Hebrews,  yet  in  some 
respects  it  means  the  same.  Conceit  aside,  it 
really  means  that  we  are  better  than  other 
people.  Long  may  we  remain  so  ! 


CHAPTER    XXXV. 

OUR     THEATRES. 

AMERICA  is  the  world's  greatest  patron  of  the 
drama. 

Religious  people  may  disapprove  of  this,  but 
they  cannot  alter  the  fact.  The  play  has  come, 
and  come  to  stay.  It  cannot  be  driven  away, 
and  those  who  do  not  like  it  may  as  well  begin 
to  make  up  their  minds  as  to  what  they  are  going 
to  do  about  it. 

It  is  a  live  influence  in  every  part  of  the  coun- 
try. The  multiplication  of  railroads  has  made  it 
possible  for  theatre  companies  to  visit  almost  any 
town  of  five  thousand  people  and  make  a  living, 
so  theatre  companies  are  going  to  visit  such 
towns  hereafter  steadily. 

It  must  be  admitted,  sadly  and  promptly,  that 
the  drama  is  not  all  that  respectable  people  would 
have  it.  A  great  number  of  the  plays  going 
about  the  country  contain  much  that  is  unfit  for 
any  one  to  see,  or  to  think  about  after  seeing. 
No  one  has  stated  this  fact  more  distinctly  or  in 
severer  terms  than  America's  most  famous  actor, 
Mr.  Bdwin  Booth,  whose  utterances  on  the  sub- 

35  '        (545) 


546  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

ject  a  few  years  ago  brought  the  entire  theatrical 
world  about  his  ears  without  injuring  him  a 
particle  or  disproving  a  word  that  he  had  said. 

Still,  facts  are  facts,  and  regarding  the  drama 
we  may  as  well  sit  down  and  look  them  coolly 
and  calmly  in  the  face.  The  people  demand 
amusement  and  they  are  going  to  have  it.  If  it 
is  not  good,  the  mass  will  accept  the  best  they 
can  find.  Not  everybody  goes  to  the  theatre, 
nevertheless  there  are  enough  to  make  the  busi- 
ness pay  or  men  would  not  go  into  it.  There  is 
no  other  human  interest  in  which  there  is  so  little 
likelihood  of  expensive  philanthropy  being  in- 
dulged in  as  the  drama.  Some  men  will  go  about 
lecturing  and  preaching  for  nothing  and  pay 
their  cvvn  expenses,  but  the  same  has  not  yet 
been  heard  about  any  theatrical  company.  We 
often  hear  of  dramatic  "  combinations  "  coming 
to  grief  far  from  their  starting-point  and  walking 
home  on  the  railway  ties,  but  they  did  not  im- 
poverish themselves  for  love  of  the  public.  They 
went  out  strictly  for  business  purposes  and  they 
would  not  have  gone  had  they  not  supposed  there 
was  money  in  it. 

The  drama  is  going  to  be  exactly  what  its 
patrons  choose  to  make  it,  and  it  is  a  lamentable 
fact  that  the  patrons  of  the  drama  in  the  United 
States  are  not  drawn  from  the  classes  which  look 
for  or  desire  improvement.  The  better  class  of 
people  do  not  attend  theatres  very  much.  Even 


OUR    THEATRES.  547 

in  the  largest  cities  the  managers  will  tell  you, 
if  they  don't  think  you  are  going  to  print  it,  that 
their  main  dependence  is  the  floating  population, 
what  they  call  the  "  hotel  people," — persons  who 
are  away  from  home,  have  no  acquaintances  in 
the  city,  and  must  find  some  place  to  spend  the 
evenings.  Very  large  cities  with  small  floating 
population  have  but  few  theatres  ;  a  small  town 
which  is  merely  a  stopping-place  may  have  many. 
The  proportion' of  places  of  amusement  in  Boston 
to  New  York  has  no  resemblance  to  the  propor- 
tion of  population.  New  York  is  not  twice  as 
large  as  Boston  but  has  five  times,  as  many 
places  of  amusement,  all  of  which  are  better  filled 
than  those  of  the  Hub.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  New  York  has  five  times  as  many  hotels 
and  probably  ten  times  as  many  strangers  in 
town. 

Aside  from  the  better  class  of  theatres,  where 
the  rates  of  admission  are  high  and  the  expense  is 
great,  the  largest  profit  is  found  in  houses  that 
require  only  a  small  rate  of  admission  and  which 
are  patronized  by  that  portion  of  the  lower  classes 
which  has  no  special  inducement  to  remain  at 
home  during  the  evening.  No  matter  how  what 
are  called  the  "  Broadway  houses  " — that  is,  the 
large  and  fashionable  theatres  of  New  York — 
are  attended,  a  visitor  can  always  depend  upon 
seeing  tiie  house  packed  from  floor  to  dome  in 
any  of  tne  places  of  amusement  on  the  Bowery. 


548  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

The  reason  is  easy  enough  to  find  for  any 
one  who  will  look  for  it.  People  who  would 
enjoy  a  good  presentation  of  one  of  Shakespeare's 
dramas,  or  a  well-written  comedy,  or  a  tragedy  by 
any  other  noted  name  in  the  dramatic  world,  have 
a  great  deal  beside  the  drama  to  interest  them. 
Their  leisure  time  is  valuable,  their  social  en- 
joyments are  numerous  and  their  homes  are 
pleasant,  so  it  must  be  a  great  feast  for  eye,  head 
or  heart,  which  will  draw  them  to  a  place  of 
amusement  for  two  or  three  hours.  Managers 
know  this  very  well,  and  make  their  dramatic 
bills  of  fare  accordingly.  "They  cater  to  the 
people  who  will  attend  the  theatre,  to  the  audi- 
ence of  which  they  are  sure.  A  prominent 
manager  in  New  York  once  read  a  play  written 
by  a  prominent  writer  and  returned  it,  declining 
it  with  the  statement :  "  It  is  too  good ;  that  is  the 
only  fault  that  I  have  to  find  with  it."  Ques- 
tioned further  about  it,  he  said  frankly  that  if 
he  were  in  London  or  one  of  the  continental 
capitals,  where  dramatic  art  is  more  respected 
than  here,  he  might  feel  justified  in  producing  a 
piece  of  that  kind,  but  that  in  New  York  he 
would  be  obliged  to  bankrupt  himself  in  playing 
it  long  enough  for  the  better  class  of  people  to 
hear  about  it  and  become  interested  sufficiently 
to  go  to  see  it. 

As  an  illustration  it  may  be  safely  said  that 
while  the  musical  comedies  of  Gilbert  and  Sul- 


OUR  THEATRES.  549 

livan  are  the  most  popular  attractions  that 
intelligent  people  have  yet  seen  on  the  American 
stage,  it  required  so  much  time  to  bring  these 
entertainments  to  the  attention  of  this  class  that 
when  "  Pinafore,"  the  first  of  the  series,  was  first 
put  on  the  stage  in  New  York,  the  attendance 
at  one  house  was  so  small  that  the  management, 
in  order  to  avert  financial  disaster,  revised  the 
piece  and  turned  it  into  a  burlesque,  and  it  was 
only  after  a  persistent  struggle  by  a  better  house 
against  fate,  and  with  the  assistance  of  a  very 
well-selected  company,  that  the  piece  made  its 
way  to  the  favor  of  the  better  classes.  Even  after 
that,  the  succeeding  pieces  by  the  same  author 
and  composer  seemed  during  their  first  weeks  to  be 
on  the  edge  of  failure.  It  was  not  until  the  man- 
ner of  the  makers  of  these  operas  became  known 
through  successive  efforts  that  there  was  certainty 
of  a  full  house  during  the  opening  week,  and  even 
then  the  managers,  as  a  rule,  were  fearful.  The 
performance  was  so  utterly  unlike  anything  that 
had  ever  succeeded  with  them  before  that  some 
of  them  were  really  amazed  that  the  people  came 
at  all,  and  wondered  why  they  came.  It  seemed 
necessary  to  some  of  these  enterprising  and  expe- 
rienced gentlemen,  from  what  they  knew  of  the 
stage  and  its  patrons,  to  tone  the  pieces  down  a 
little — they  called  it  toning  up — by  inflicting 
upon  them  a  number  of  "  local  gags  "  whereby 
the  movement  of  a  piece  was  arrested  and  the 


550  OUR  COUNTRY'S   FUTURE. 

attention  of  the  audience  diverted  from  the  plot 
and  purpose  by  a  lot  of  silly  jokes  entirely  irrel- 
evant to  the  time,  scene  and  plot. 

It  may  be  said  of  Mr.  Booth  himself,  now  that 
he  is  eminently  successful  and  respected,  as  well 
as  a  great  success  commercially,  that  he  has  often 
played  to  very  poor  houses  in  New  York  while  a 
brainless  mass  of  vulgarity  and  chatter  was 
"  turning  away  money  "  from  the  doors  of  a 
neighboring  establishment.  The  trouble  was 
not  that  Mr.  Booth  did  not  play  well,  but  that 
the  class  who  could  appreciate  good  playing  of 
noble  tragedies  could  not  be  persuaded  to  leave 
their  comfortable  homes  and  social  circles  to  go 
to  the  theatre  until  they  were  absolutely  assured 
that  there  was  something  well  worthy  of  their  at- 
tention to  be  seen  and  heard.  As  for  the  other 
class,  its  taste,  if  not  already  understood,  can  be 
imagined  from  an  experience  which  Buffalo  Bill 
relates  with  great  glee.  Bill  was  playing  a  part 
in  an  extraordinary  jumble  of  Western  scenes 
and  language  which  had  been  put  together  by  his 
friend  Ned  Buntline.  Salvini  was  playing  in  the 
same  town,  and  just  after  the  curtain  had  gone  up 
a  tired,  rather  seedy-looking  person  with  a  solemn- 
looking  countenance  came  to  the  ticket-office 
and  begged  permission  to  go  in  and  stand  against 
the  wall  and  see  the  show.  He  said  he  hadn't 
any  money  nor  any  place  to  go  to,  and  felt  aw- 
fully lonesome.  The  press  agent  of  the  Salvini 


EDWIN  BOOTH. 


OUR   THEATRES.  551 

company  chanced  to  be  standing  by  at  the  time 
and  was  so  sorry  for  the  man  that  he  said :  "  My 
friend,  we  are  absolutely  forbidden  to  give  away 
any  tickets  here,  but  I  am  real  sorry  for  you ; 
I  have  been  friendless  and  penniless  myself  once 
in  a  while,  and  I  know  how  to  feel  for  such  a 
man,  and  as  I  am  pretty  well  off  now,  I  don't 
mind  giving  you  out  and  out  fifty  cents  with 
which  you  can  buy  a  ticket  and  come  in."  "  God 
bless  you,  sir,"  said  the  fellow,  "  and  seeing  you 
have  given  me  the  money  instead  of  a  ticket,  why, 
if  it's  just  the  same  to  you,  I'll  go  round  and  pay 
for  admission  at  Buffalo  Bill's  show."  Both  Bill 
and  Salvini  tell  this  story  as  an  illustration  of 
the  taste  of  the  masses. 

But  the  performance  to  which  the  recipient  of 
fifty  cents  went  was  propriety  itself  compared 
with  many  which  are  seen  every  year  in  all 
American  towns  large  enough  to  boast  of  an 
alleged  "  opera-house  "  or  even  a  hall  in  which 
performances  may  be  given.  Plays  are  made  de- 
liberately for  the  purpose  of  catching  the  general 
crowd,  and,  as  the  largest  crowd  is  everywhere 
the  commonest,  they  are  made  very  common.  In 
fact,  the  word  "  common"  does  not  express  it. 
Probably  there  is  no  word  in  the  language  that 
will  comprehend  the  rudeness,  vulgarity,  gaudi- 
ness  and  immorality  of  a  great  many  shows  to 
which  the  class  of  young  men  and  young  wo- 
men who  do  about  as  they  please  go  every  night 


552  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

in  large  numbers.  Nothing  that  any  minister 
has  said  against  the  theatre  is  strong  enough  to 
properly  characterize  the  mass  of  performances 
at  American  theatres. 

What  is  to  be  done  about  it  ?  Well,  we  know 
what  to  do  about  anything  else  which  we  think 
threatens  the  well-being  of  the  community  in  any 
particular.  We  abate  it  by  law  when  we  can,  and 
if  the  law  is  insufficient  or  inoperative  we  fall 
back  upon  public  sentiment  instead.  There  is 
quite  as  much  demoralization  for  the  community 
in  a  bad  theatre  as  there  is  in  half  a  dozen  rum- 
shops.  Prohibitionists  may  not  admit  this,  but 
they  would  if  they  were  to  attend  certain  places 
of  amusement  for  a  little  while.  A  thing  may 
not  be  bad  enough  to  demand  the  attention  of  the 
police  and  yet  be  so  vile  as  indirectly  to  demoral- 
ize all  susceptible  people  who  see  it.  There  are 
books  before  the  community  which  cannot  be 
confiscated  even  by  Mr.  Anthony  Comstock,  with 
his  narrow  views  and  his  strong  backing  of  law, 
yet  their  influence  upon  the  morals  of  the  com- 
munity is  worse  than  any  one  of  a  number  of 
immoral  resorts  which  have  been  suppressed  by 
law.  More  harm  can  be  done  to  morals  very 
often  by  mere  suggestion  than  by  any  overt  act 
or  vulgar  expression,  and  such  suggestion  abounds 
in  dozens  of  the  pieces  performed  every  night  in 
the  United  States — pieces  which  hurry  from  place 


OUR   THEATRES.  553 

to    place    by   railroad    through    eight   or    nine 
months  of  every  year. 

The  only  way  to  abate  this  nuisance  is  for  the 
respectable  citizens  of  any  locality  to  take  upon 
themselves  financially  the  responsibility  of 
managing  places  of  amusement.  There  is  no 
other  possible  way  of  doing  it.  It  is  not  possible 
by  law  to  elect  a  dramatic  censor  for  each  town 
who  shall  prescribe  the  length  of  the  dress  which 
the  actress  shall  wear,  or  the  sort  of  smile  she 
shall  give,  or  the  extent  to  which  a  joke  on  the 
stage  may  have  a  double  meaning.  It  is  possi- 
ble, however,  for  any  number  of  reputable  citizens , 
to  control  places  of  amusement  so  that  nothing 
shall  be  presented  which  has  not  received  the 
stamp  of  respectability  somewhere.  This  is  not 
a  theory  but  an  accomplished  fact  in  many 
places.  There  are  towns  in  the  United  States  in 
which  any  man  may  safely  allow  his  wife  and 
children  to  attend  the  local  theatre,  and  there  is 
no  reason  why  the  same  should  not  be  accom- 
plished everywhere  else.  The  plan  is  simply  for 
respectable  men  to  get  financial  control  of  the 
place  of  amusement.  To  keep  people  out  of  the 
theatres  is  an  utter  impossibility.  Law  cannot 
do  it.  Ordinary  public  sentiment  will  not  do  it. 
The  young  people  of  the  United  States  are  so  free 
of  parental  restraint  at  the  age  in  which  they  are 
most  impressible  that  they  will  continue  to  fill 
theatres  no  matter  what  may  be  presented,  and  if 


554  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

they  are  to  be  saved  from  bad  influences  either 
their  own  parents  or  the  class  of  people  to  whom 
their  parents  belong  must  formulate  and  prac- 
tice the  necessary  preventive  measures. 

There  is  great  reason  however  to  hope  for  a 
gradual  reform  of  the  drama  in  America.  Some 
respectable  plays  have  been  so  immensely  suc- 
cessful that  even  the  worst  class  of  managers  are 
looking  about  for  something  of  the  same  kind  if 
they  can  find  it.  A  prominent  instance  is  the 
success  of  a  play  called  "  The  Old  Homestead," 
in  the  city  of  New  York,  which  has  been  the 
only  source  of  profit  that  has  ever  been  found  for 
the  building  in  which  it  was  played.  It  has  run 
for  many  hundreds  of  nights  and  apparently  can 
run  on  till  the  end  of  time,  yet  there  is  nothing 
indecent  in  it  from  beginning  to  end.  It  is  one 
of  the  simplest  things  in  the  world  too — merely  a 
careful  representation  of  country  life  in  a  part  of 
the  United  States,  country  life  which  is  not  at  all 
unlike  that  of  almost  any  rural  locality  in  the 
Union.  A  dozen  other  pieces  somewhat  similar  in 
character  have  been  immensely  successful  and  are 
still  "  on  the  road,"  as  the  theatrical  people  say. 
Two  generations  of  actors  have  lived  and  died 
since  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  "  was  first  produced, 
yet  several  companies  are  still  carrying  this 
venerable  piece  about  the  country  and  presenting 
it  to  paying  audiences.  Not  only  do  pastoral 
plays  attract  people  of  every  class,  but  the  num- 


OUR   THKATRES.  555 

her  of  pieces  based  upon  scenes  and  incidents  of 
higher  social  life  have  been  remarkably  success- 
ful in  large  cities,  so  successful  indeed  that  they 
have  not  been  able  to  tear  themselves  away  and 
visit  the  rural  districts. 

All  this  has  been  immensely  encouraging  to 
American  dramatists.  Until  within  a  few  years 
no  American  with  any  sense  and  any  knowledge 
of  the  stage  would  think  of  writing  a  play  for  the 
purpose  of  getting  any  profit  out  of  it,  but  now-a- 
days  some  of  our  native  dramatists  have  incomes 
which  make  them  envied  by  successful  lawyers, 
physicians,  and  other  professional  men.  Mr. 
Bronson  Howard,  who  is  easily  at  the  head  and 
front  of  American  dramatists,  is  annually  asked 
for  several  times  as  many  plays  as  he  possibly 
can  write,  and  his  pieces  seem  to  delight  the 
better  classes  in  all  sections  of  the  country.  In- 
deed, so  great  is  the  demand  for  plays  with 
American  scenes,  American  characters,  and 
American  incidents  that  some  men  who  are  the 
veriest  amateurs  at  dramatic  work  have  aban- 
doned literature  to  give  themselves  entirely  to 
play- writing,  and  even  the  critics  treat  them 
kindly.  They  will  point  to  numerous  defects  of 
construction  which  any  tyro  of  dramatic  art 
would  have  instinctively  avoided,  and  yet 
the  admission  is  afterwards  made  that  the  per- 
formance was  interesting,  wholesome  and  per- 
haps exciting.  How  much  more  can  be  asked  ? 


556  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

Mr.  1/awrence  Barrett,  a  successful  actor  who  has 
attempted  everything  from  low  comedy  to  high 
tragedy,  has  made  it  a  practice  to  produce  one 
new  American  play  each  year,  and  probably  has 
found  profit  in  so  doing,  otherwise  he  would  not 
have  temporarily  given  up  the  old  stand-bys 
upon  which  any  actor  of  ability  may  safely  trust 
himself. 

If  this  sort  of  thing  goes  on,  as  it  promises  to 
do,  we  will  soon  be  as  successful  in  the  drama  as 
we  are  in  literature.  People  enjoy  most  what 
they  are  best  acquainted  with.  The  most  sensa- 
tional book  or  play  succeeds  nowhere  near  so 
well  as  something  which  the  people  call  abso- 
lutely true  to  nature,  which  means  simply  that 
it  agrees  with  their  ideas  and  reproduces  scenes, 
sentiments  and  situations  with  which  they  are 
familiar. 

Of  course  there  is  no  lack  of  dramatic  material 
in  America.  The  manner  of  life  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States  is  so  diversified  by  locality 
and  circumstances  that  there  is  no  end  to  the, 
number  of  incidents  and  situations  available  for 
the  successful  playwright.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary at  all  for  an  American  writer  of  plays  to 
look  for  a  plot  to  dubious  relations  of  the  sexes, 
which  is  almost  the  sole  basis  of  all  English  and 
continental  dramas.  After  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin," 
the  play  which  has  been  oftenest  performed  in  the 
United  States  is  probably  Rip  Van  Winkle.  The 


LAWRENCE  BARRETT. 


OUR  THEATRES.  557 

author  of  that  piece,  Mr.  Dion  Boucicault,  has 
written  at  least  a  hundred  others.  Some  of  them 
were  extremely  sensational  and  most  of  them 
were  what  the  prudent  father  of  a  family  would 
call  "  somewhat  off  color "  in  some  aspects. 
There  is  no  one  in  America  who  so  fully  knows 
of  eve^thing  necessary  to  stage  production  as 
Mr.  Boucicault.  He  is  architect,  artist,  literateur, 
dramatist  and  novelist.  Yet  none  of  his  highly 
colored  productions  ever  achieved  the  success  of 
this  simple  play  based  upon  one  of  Washington 
Irving's  amusing  stories.  And,  speaking  of  Mr. 
Boucicault,  his  next  successful  piece  was  an 
Irish  play,  "  The  Shaugraun,"  in  which  also 
there  was  nothing  offensive  to  the  moral  sense  of 
the  most  respectable  person. 

All  this  goes  to  show  that  the  American  people 
do  not  need  plays  which  are  in  any  respect  repre- 
hensible. If  author  or  actor  will  appeal  to  their 
hearts,  he  will  have  no  excuse  to  grope  for  their 
passions  or  vices.  As  already  said,  the  tendency 
to  produce  clean  plays  is  becoming  strong,  and 
as  the  results  are  satisfactory  to  managers  and 
authors  we  probably  shall  see  considerable  reform 
in  a  short  time.  The  lower  classes  of  the  large 
cities,  and  that  very  large  class  of  men  who  are 
quite  willing  to  see  and  do  when  away  from 
home  what  they  would  not  dare  attempt  while 
among  their  own  families  or  acquaintances,  will 
continue  to  demand  performances  which  make 


558  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

"  the  groundlings  laugh,  but  the  judicious 
grieve."  Such  performances,  of  course,  gratify 
only  unclean  impulses.  Probably  there  always 
will  be  vice  in  the  world  until  the  dawn  of  the  mil- 
lennium, and  the  theatre  is  no  more  likely  than  any 
other  interest  to  escape  its  influence;  but  there  is 
ample  possibility  and  promise  of  so  great  an  im- 
provement in  this  direction  that  we  may  yet  see 
pastors  leading  their  flocks  to  the  theatre  on  week 
nights,  and  even  announcing  performances  from 
the  pulpit  during  the  reading  of  the  customary 
"  notices  of  the  week." 

Before  this  can  be,  however,  our  managers, 
actors,  and  lovers  of  amusement  must  have  moie 
encouragement  from  the  more  prominent  critics. 
Some  of  these  reviewers  of  plays  seem  to  write 
under  the  impression  that  the  people  should  go 
to  the  theatre  merely  to  study  the  drama.  Not 
one  person  in  a  dozen  goes  to  the  theatre  for  any 
such  purpose,  or  ever  will.  The  tendency  to 
turn  a  place  of  amusement  into  a  school-room  may 
be  natural  enough  to  the  critic,  for  it  is  his  busi- 
ness to  study ;  but  the  people  go  to  the  theatre  to 
be  amused,  or  at  least  entertained,  and  they 
resent  being  told  that  they  should  go  for  any 
other  purpose.  To  spend  an  evening  pleasantly 
at  a  performance  of  a  simple  piece  which  perhaps 
is  more  spectacle  than  drama  and  be  told  next 
morning  by  your  favorite  paper  that  it  was 
44  merely  a  show,"  or  "  a  reminiscence  of  a  school 


OUR   THEATRES'.  559 

exhibition,"  is  enraging.  Perhaps  it  was  only 
this,  but  why  hold  it  up  to  contempt  on  that  ac- 
count? Critics  must  stop  snarling  at  amuse 
ments  that  are  merely  amusing,  if  managers  are 
to  succeed  and  the  people  to  be  entertained  ac- 
cording to  their  own  taste.  No  one  objects  to 
there  being  the  highest  order  of  dramatic  per- 
formances for  advanced  students  of  the  drama, 
but  so  long  as  anything  else  is  amusing,  decent, 
and  good  of  its  kind — no  matter  how  humble  the 
kind — it  should  receive  the  stamp  of  approval 
from  those  who  profess  to  speak  with  authority. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

AMERICAN     HUMOR. 

THE  burden  of  foreign  criticism  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States  may  be  expressed  in  the 
language  of  the  vulgar  by  saying  that  we  are 
"  too  fresh."  Well,  if  we  are,  we  have  the  salt 
that  will  save  us,  and  that  salt  is  American 
Humor. 

Whatever  may  be  the. failing  of  any  American, 
whether  native  or  adopted,  he  may  generally  be 
depended  upon  for  a  sense  of  humor.  If  there 
is  no  other  point  of  contact  between  him  and  the 
stranger  who  encounters  him,  it  is  quite  safe  to 
fall  back  upon  humor  as  a  common  meeting 
ground. 

This  is  the  only  country  in  the  world  in  which 
everybody  indulges  in  joking.  Other  countries 
have  their  wits  and  humorists  who  are  a  special 
class  among  themselves.  But  here  any  and 
every  man  must  have  a  sense  of  humor  and  know 
how  to  use  it  if  he  wants  to  get  along  with  his 
fellow-citizens. 

Some  of  our  most  humorous  men  are  solemn 
judges.  Others  are  physicians.  Editors  are 

(560) 


AMERICAN    HUMOR.  561 

humorists  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  even  the 
clergyman  with  a  level  head  leans  to  the  belief 
that  his  education  is  incomplete  until  he  can  turn 
a  joke  as  well  as  he  can  preach  a  sermon. 

We  joke  about  everything.  This  does  not 
mean  that  we  make  fun  of  everything,  but  that, 
as  everything  has  its  possible  humorous  side,  we 
are  competent  to  see  it  and  call  attention  to  it. 

There  is  no  department  of  American  history, 
political,  military,  social  or  religious,  in  which 
traces  of  the  humorist  may  not  be  found. 
There  was  considerable  sense  of  fun  among  the 
grim  old  fellows  who  came  over  in  the  May- 
flower, as  any  one  may  find  out  for  himself  if  he 
will  take  the  trouble  to  look  to  the  original  rec- 
ords, and  in  the  many  volumes  of  correspondence 
which  have  appeared  in  genealogical  history  of 
the  first  families  of  New  England.  There  is 
quite  as  much  sense  of  humor  manifested  as  in 
similar  records  of  the  first  families  of  Virginia. 
It  is  the  custom  in  history  to  draw  a  sharp  divid- 
ing line  betv/een  these  two  classes  of  American 
pioneers,  but  the  line  disappears  as  soon  as  one 
gets  beneath  the  surface.  Solemnity  and  serious- 
ness, whether  counterfeit  or  genuine,  can  be 
maintained  for  only  a  certain  length  of  time  by 
any  one.  So  Puritan  and  Cavalier  speedily  went 
back  to  a  distinguishing  trait  of  their  common 
ancestors  in  the  old  country,  and  improved 
upon  it. 

36 


562  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

In  the  United  States  no  subject  is  too  sacred  to 
joke  about;  or,  at  least,  too  sacred  to  be  exam- 
ined in  the  light  of  humor.  Americans  as  a  class 
are  a  reverent  people.  They  would  not  for  the 
world  make  fun  of  the  Deity,  but  many  of  them 
talk  of  the  most  sacred  sentiments  and  person- 
ages with  a  familiarity  and  play  of  humor  which 
terribly  shock  some  of  the  formalists  from  the 
other  side  of  the  water.  When  Mr.  Lowell  wrote 
his  earlier  series  of  the  "Bigelow  Papers"  his 
verses  were  read  with  much  curiosity  and  some 
delight  in  Burope,  but  suddenly  the  entire  Eng- 
lish press  was  horrified  by  his  lines  : 

"  You've  got  to  get  up  airly 
E)f  you  want  to  take  in  God." 

This  was  pronounced  by  one  high  English  liter- 
ary authority  the  most  irreverent  and  blasphe- 
mous expression  that  ever  had  appeared  in  print ; 
but  Mr.  Lowell  replied  by  saying  that  familiarity 
was  not  irreverence ;  that  the  early  American 
was  intimately  acquainted  with  his  God— he  had 
to  be.  There  was  no  other  friend  upon  whom  he 
could  rely,  and  conscientiously  he  talked  about 
Him  in  a  half  playful  but  always  affectionate 
manner,  which  was  the  custom  regarding  the 
earthly  parents  of  the  period. 

It  is  impossible  to  go  anywhere  in  American 
society,  no  matter  how  high  nor  how  serious  the 
subject  under  consideration  may  be,  without  en- 
countering, generally  to  the  hearer's  benefit,  the 


AMERICAN   HUMOR.  563 

American  spirit  of  humor.  Congress  may  be  in 
session  and  the  country  almost  convulsed  by 
some  grave  discussion  which  is  going  on,  never- 
theless on  the  floor  of  the  House  and  far  more  in 
the  committee-rooms  and  in  the  lobby  one  is  sure 
to  hear  the  strongest  arguments  advanced  in 
humorous  form.  They  are  called  jokes,  but  some 
new  word  should  be  coined  to  give  them  the 
dignity  which  their  usefulness  has  enabled  them 
to  attain. 

The  most  serious  man  in  appearance  in  the 
United  States,  excepting  none  of  the  early  Puritan 
divines,  was  probably  the  late  President  Lincoln. 
His  visage  was  not  only  earnest  and  solemn  but 
positively  mournful  whenever  it  was  in  repose. 
He  was  a  debater  of  high  order,  he  was  a  logician 
whom  men  who  had  held  him  in  contempt  for  his 
homely  ways  and  awkward  manner  learned  to 
respect  as  soon  as  they  crossed  verbal  swords 
with  him,  but  Lincoln's  strongest  argument  was 
always  a  joke.  He  said  and  wrote  many  things 
which  were  grand  in  their  day,  but  which  seemed 
to  have  been  entombed  in  printed  pages  and 
diplomatic  papers,  for  one  seldom  hears  them 
quoted  now-a-days  ;  yet  his  jokes  still  live. 
They  are  perennial,  not  merely  those  which 
were  attributed  to  him,  but  those  which  he  really 
made.  "  To  clinch  a  point,"  which  was  one  of 
his  own  favorite  expressions,  he  tried  the  pa- 
tience of  his  Cabinet  severely  at  times  by  per- 


564  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

sisting  in  joking  upon  serious  subjects — matters 
of  great  moment  at  the  time ;  and  it  is  said  upon 
good  authority  that  once  he  opened  the  Cabinet 
meeting  called  specially  with  the  hope  of  aver- 
ting great  disaster  to  the  Union  cause  by  reading 
the  last  printed  letter  of  Petroleum  V.  Nasby 
on  the  Democratic  doings  at  Confederit  X  Roads, 
State  ov  Kentucky.  Before  the  meeting  was 
over,  however,  Mr.  Lincoln  read  his  Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation.  While  Mr.  Seward,  as  able 
and  adroit  a  man  as  ever  held  the  portfolio  of 
Secretary  of  State,  would  be  wondering  how  to 
reply  to  an  annoying  committee  or  deputation 
which  had  come  from  some  one  of  the  North- 
ern States  to  instruct  the  Government  how  to 
carry  on  the  war,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  quietly  con- 
structing a  little  joke  or  recalling  one  from  his 
past  experiences  which  would  be  appropriate  to 
the  occasion,  and  after  the  joke  was  inflicted 
upon  the  committee  Mr.  Seward  was  sure  to 
find  that  his  own  carefully  prepared  speech  was 
entirely  unnecessary. 

But  it  is  not  only  in  political  circles  that 
humor  has  been  made  to  serve  the  cause  of  good 
government,  good  morals  and  the  highest  degree 
of  righteousness  in  the  United  States.  The 
members  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  are  all  practical  jokers  ;  that  is,  they  all 
are  fond  of  avoiding  a  long-winded  argument  by 
telling  a  story  illustrative  of  the  question  at 


AMERICAN   HUMOR.  565 

issue.  Ministers  do  the  same.  A  meeting  of  clergy- 
men of  any  denomination  is  likely  to  result  in 
some  very  sharp  discussion  which  closely  ap- 
proaches to  ill  temper,  but  in  such  cases  some  one 
may  always  be  depended  upon  to  get  up  and  tell  a 
humorous  story  which  gives  point  to  the  proceed- 
ings, and  also  gives  them  a  new  direction  and 
acts  like  oil  upon  the  troubled  waters.  Humor 
is  tolerated  even  in  the  pulpit.  The  late  Henry 
Ward  Beecher  frequently  made  his  congregation- 
laugh  on  Sunday,  and  some  of  the  newspapers 
criticised  him  severely  for  it,  but  he  seldom  lost 
a  parishioner  on  that  account,  and  thousands  of 
people — who  never  otherwise  would  have  heard 
him — were  brought  under  his  spiritual  influence 
by  appreciation  of  a  faculty  that  drew  them 
into  closer  sympathy  with  him  as  a  man.  A 
preacher  of  a  very  different  stamp,  the  Rev.  Sam 
Jones,  of  Georgia,  never  hesitates  to  tell  funny 
stories,  always  illustrative  of  his  subject,  while 
delivering  his  talks,  and  Sam  addresses  larger 
congregations  than  any  other  American  preacher 
of  the  present  time. 

Humor  makes  its  way  everywhere  in  the 
United  States.  Newspapers  are  full  of  it,  and 
the  most  high-toned  and  serious  of  them  find  it 
necessary  to  supply  their  readers  with  jokes.  A 
New  Yorker  recently  held  a  neighbor  to  account 
for  reading  habitually  a  very  serious  and  almost 
bilious  daily  newspaper.  "  I  don't  read  it  much," 


566  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

said  he,  "  but  I  buy  it  because  its  fuuuy  column 
contains  a  better  assortment  of  jokes  than  any 
other  paper  in  the  city."  The  principal  editorial 
writer  of  a  large  New  York  daily  paper,  a  paper 
of  wide  circulation  and  great  influence,  once  com- 
plained to  the  managing  editor  that  all  the  point 
of  a  leading  article  to  which  he  had  devoted  two 
days  of  thought  had  been  expressed  in  the 
paragraph  column  by  a  joke  one  line  long. 

The  public  meeting  is  the  truest,  the  fairest 
expression  of  American  opinion  in  any  given 
locality,  but  in  the  public  meeting  it.is  always  the 
humorist  who  sways  the  audience  and  carries  the 
day.  He  may  be  one  of  the  stated  speakers,  a 
man  of  great  wisdom  and  force,  for  wisdom  and 
wit  are  closely  allied  in  the  American  nature, 
however  the  celebrated  couplet  of  the  late  Alex- 
ander Pope  about  "  great  wit  and  madness  "  may 
seem  to  indicate  the  contrary.  In  the  great 
political  discussions,  now  historic,  which  once 
were  conducted  by  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Senator 
Douglas,  when  both  were  comparatively  young 
men,  and  the  Democratic  champion  got  his 
adversary  into  a  corner,  as  occasionally  he  did, 
Lincoln  always  got  out^of  his  predicament  with 
a  joke — never  with  an  argument — and  the  audi- 
ence never  failed  to  see  the  point.  This  shows 
the  universality  of  the  American  sense  of  humor. 
In  any  other  country  of  the  world  the  peasantry, 
who  are  the  nearest  possible  parallel  to  the 


AMERICAN   HUMOR.  567 

farmers  of  America,  are  stupid  and  dull  of  com- 
prehension, but  an  American  crowd,  no  matter 
how  far  away  from  the  centres  of  civilization,  nor 
how  solemn,  and  serious,  and  weary,  and  dull  of 
comprehension  their  faces  may  seem,  can  always 
be  depended  upon  to  take  the  point  of  a  joke. 
They  are  equally  quick  to  resent  an  attempt  at 
humor  which  is  not  correctly  and  sharply  pointed. 
They  are  all  humorists  themselves.  Get  a  seat 
on  the  wagon  of  a  farmer  driving  along  a  country 
road  and  engage  the  man  in  conversation,  and 
you  will  hear  more  sharp,  pithy,  humorous  say- 
ings than  you  are  apt  to  get  from  any  professed 
wit  in  polite  society.  Let  the  man  meet  a  brother 
farmer  coming  from  the  opposite  direction,  and, 
although  the  conversation  will  naturally  turn  on 
the  crops,  and  the  taxes,  and  local  government, 
and  family  or  individual  misfortunes,  the  conver- 
sation is  sure  to  be  spiced  with  humor.  In  other 
countries  it  seems  to  require  a  jolly  fellow,  a  man 
of  high  spirits,  to  say  funny  things  ;  but  here,  if 
you  chance  not  to  expect  the  man  of  solemn  vis- 
.age,  the  man  bowed  down  with  care,  to  break 
out  humorously,  you  are  sure  to  be  agreeably 
disappointed. 

•  Even  in  stated  religiotrs  meetings  this  quality 
of  the  American  nature  frequently  displays  itself 
unexpectedly,  but  always  with  effect.  As  solemn 
and  religious  gathering  as  can  be  seen  in  the 
United  States  is  the  camp-meeting  in  the  far 


568          OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

West,  where  people  come  from  many  miles 
around  to  listen  to  the  only  form  of  religious 
service  which  they  have  the  privilege  of  attend- 
ing. The  sermons  and  prayers  are  intensely 
earnest.  The  speakers  have  an  immense  sense 
of  responsibility  of  the  duties  incumbent  upon 
them,  but  in  sermon,  and  even  sometimes  in 
prayer,  expressions  break  forth  which  show  that 
in  no  circumstances  can  the  native  American  be 
free  from  the  domination  of  his  sense  of  humor. 
The  most  powerful  individual  influence  that  ever 
existed  in  the  Western  camp-meetings,  according 
to  historians  sacred  and  profane,  was  a  man 
named  Peter  Cartright,  a  Methodist  preacher. 
He  would  move  audiences  to  tears  and  sometimes 
to  groans  by  the  eloquence  and  earnestness  of 
his  preaching,  yet  suddenly,  at  the  most  unex- 
pected times,  he  would  say  things  that  would 
put  his  entire  congregation  into  paroxysms  of 
laughter.  The  purpose  of  the  meeting  never 
was  disturbed  by  these  discursive  efforts.  They 
were  as  much  to  the  point  as  the  most  earnest 
statements  and  exhortations  which  he  had  pre- 
viously made,  and  were  entirely  in  keeping  with 
the  general  intentions  of  the  service. 

Passing  from  conversation  to  printed  utter- 
ances, it  may  be  safely  said  that  the  humorous 
writings  of  Americans  have  been  more  read  than 
any  other  literature  which  has  appeared  from  our 
press.  We  have  many  able  editors  in  the  United 


AMERICAN    HUMOR.  569 

States,  but  those  most  read  are  those  who  say 
the  funniest  things.  There  never  was  a  more 
influential  editor  in  the  United  States  than  the 
late  George  D.  Prentice,  who  for  a  long  time 
managed  the  newspaper  which  now  is  the  Louis- 
ville Courier-Journal.  Prentice  was  a  Whig,  but 
probably  half  of  his  readers  were  Democrats. 
They  didn't  like  his  politics,  but  they  couldn't 
get  along  without  his  fun.  His  paper  was  pub- 
lished in  a  Southern  State,  a  slave  State,  but 
more  than  half  of  its  circulation  was  in  the  free 
States  of  the  North.  While  Prentice  lived  there 
was  scarcely  a  post-office  in  the  Mississippi  or 
Ohio  Valle}'  which  did  not  receive  copies  of  it  by 
mail.  Its  influence  extended  as  far  North  as 
Chicago  and  the  North-western  States,  and  the 
local  paper  which  didn't  repeat  his  humorous 
bits  was  likely  to  be  informed  by  its  readers  that 
there  must  be  a  reform  in  that  direction.  For 
many  years  the  most  popular  portion  of  the  very 
good  editorial  page  of  one  of  the  most  prominent 
daily  papers  of  New  York  was  its  humorous 
editorial.  The  topics  of  the  writer  were  seldom 
those  of  the  great  interests  of  the  day,  yet  people 
read  it,  turned  to  it  the  first  thing,  talked  about 
it  to  their  friends,  compelled  them  to  read  it,  and 
felt  lost  when  the  writer  of  those  articles  was 
transferred  to  a  different  field  of  labor. 

We  have  some  popular  poets  in  the  United 
States,  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  works  of 


570  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

any  of  them  have  been  as  much  read  as  Mr. 
Lowell's  "  Bigelow  Papers."  Mr.  Lowell  is  no 
mean  poet  himself;  there  are  critics  who  insist 
that  he  has  not  an  equal  among  American  versi- 
fiers, but  the  humorous  verses  just  alluded  to 
have  made  him  better  known  than  all  of  his  more 
serious  efforts,  and  it  is  believed  by  intelligent 
men  of  all  parties  that  it  had  immense  effect  in 
bringing  about  the  political  changes  which  im- 
mediately preceded  the  late  civil  war. 

During  the  civil  war  there  were  many  editors 
who  used  to  say,  with  some  evidence  of  annoy- 
ance, that  they  wished  they  could  be  read  as  much 
as  Nasby.  Nasby  was  an  Ohio  editor  who  invented 
a  scene  and  some  characters  in  the  South,  and 
wrote  about  them  so  persistently  and  with  such 
a  realistic  air  that  his  effusions  were  copied 
regularly  in  almost  all  of  the  Republican  papers 
of  the  land.  Another  man  who  was  more  read 
than  any  editor  of  the  day  was  Artemas  Ward. 
He  did  not  go  into  politics  to  any  great  extent, 
but  what  he  did  say  was  so  accurately  satirical 
that  nearly  everybody  read  it  and  was  the  wiser 
for  it.  The  mistakes  of  our  generals,  the  blun- 
ders of  our  government  and  the  crimes  of  many 
of  our  contractors  were  the  subject  of  a  great 
deal  of  vigorous  editorial  writing,  but  no  one  suc- 
ceeded in  bringing  them  so  forcibly  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  public  as  a  wit  who  wrote  under  the 
nom  de  plume  of  Orpheus  C.  Ferr.  During  the 


JAMES  WH1TCOMB  RILEY. 


BILL"  NVE. 


AMERICAN  HUMOR.  571 

same  period  there  were  facts  in  the  local  history 
of  New  York  extremely  uncomplimentary  to  one 
great  political  party,  and  the  opposing  party  lost 
no  opportunity  to  disclose  them  and  criticise  them 
in  editorial  columns  and  news  columns,  but  one 
man  was  more  read  than  all  others  combined. 
It  was  the  man  who  wrote  the  satire  entitled 
''  The  New  Gospel  of  Peace,"  in  which  the 
doings  of  the  alleged  Peace  Party  were  set  forth 
in  humorous  style. 

At  the  present  time  the  men  whose  writings 
are  most  read  are  not  the  historians,  editors, 
essayists,  or  even  novelists.  They  are  the  hu- 
morists. Bill  Nye  is  more  read  than  any  novelist 
in  the  United  States.  So  is  James  Whitcomb 
Riley.  In  Chicago  there  are  a  number  of  able 
journalists,  but  the  one  most  quoted  by  name 
not  only  in  his  own  city  but  throughout  the 
•Union  is  Eugene  Field,  whose  humor  finds  no 
subject  too  great  or  too  small  to  dwell  upon.  A 
little  while  ago  an  edition  de  luxe  of  his  humor- 
ous prose  and  verse  wras  published  at  a  very  high 
price,  and  some  of  the  later  would-be  subscribers 
found  to  their  disgust  that  the  list  was  full  and 
no  more  books  could  be  supplied.  Is  there  any 
poet  or  novelist  in  the  United  States  who  has  had 
a  commercial  experience  like  this  ? 

Mr.  John  Hay,  once  a  Secretary  of  President 
Lincoln,  and  afterward  a  hard-working  journalist, 
is  also  a  poet,  and  has  perpetrated  some  graceful 


572  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

verses,  but  when  any  one  offers  to  quote  a  bit  from 
John  Hay,  the  hearers  always  understand  that  it 
will  be  something  humorous.  His  dialect  poems 
do  not  exceed  half-a-dozen,  yet  they  seem  as 
popular  now  as  when  first  written  twenty  years 
ago.  They  were  not  carefully  elaborated ;  the 
author  is  said  to  have  dashed  them  off  in  a  hurry 
as  a  relief  from  hard  editorial  work,  but  they 
struck  the  popular  heart  at  once,  probably  be- 
cause, like  most  other  American  humor,  there 
was  a  basis  of  seriousness  and  sense  to  them. 
The  finale  of  his  poem,  "Little  Breeches," — a 
poetic  story  of  a  lost  child  who  was  saved,  as  his 
father  supposed,  by  angels,  will  long  be  the  most 
popular  and  effective  protest  against  formal  re- 
ligious ideas.  He  says  of  the  angels  : 

"  I  think  that  savin'  a  little  child 

And  bringin'  him  back  to  his  own 
Is  a  durn  sight  better  bizness 
Than  loafin'  round  the  throne." 

Was  there  ever  a  greater  commercial  success 
in  literature  than  that  achieved  by  Mark  Twain  ? 
The  combined  books  of  the  most  successful 
American  novelist  have  not  sold  as  many  copies 
as  one  of  Mark  Twain's  books.  Why  ?  Because 
Mark  Twain  is  funny — because  he  knows  how  to 
say  something  in  a  way  in  which  nobody  else 
has  said  it.  Scores  of  other  men  have  written 
about  the  Holy  Land  and  our  own  West,  but  it 
was  not  until  "  Innocents  Abroad  "  and  "  Rough- 


AMERICAN    HUMOR.  573 

ing  It  "  appeared  that  people  in  general  began  to 
manifest  a  livety  interest  in  these  portions  of  the 
world.  Innumerable  sketches  have  been  written 
about  life  on  the  Mississippi  River  in  the  old 
days  before  railroads  and  emancipation,  but  all 
of  them  combined  did  not  "  catch  "  the  public  as 
successfully  as  "  Huckleberry  Finn."  The  latter 
was  humorous,  the  others  were  not ;  there  was  no 
other  point  of  difference. 

It  does  not  matter,  to  the  American  people, 
from  where  humor  comes,  so  it  really  is  humor- 
ous and  has  point  to  it.  We  will  take  it  in  any 
shape  or  dialect.  One  of  the  great  successes  of 
humorous  literature  during  the  civil  war  was 
that  achieved  by  Col,  Charles  G.  Halpine,  who 
made  a  mythical  Irish  soldier,  "  Private  Miles 
O'Reilly,"  his  mouthpiece  for  a  lot  of  humorous 
criticisms  of  the  Government,  the  army  and 
navy.  During  the  same  period  there  arose  a 
Southerner,  signing  himself  "  Bill  Arp,"  who 
made  some  hard  hits,  in  humorous  style,  at  the 
North  ;  somehow  they  found  their  way  through 
the  lines  and  were  freely  reprinted  at  the  North. 
In  later  years  another  Southerner — the  creator 
of  "  Uncle  Remus,"  put  a  lot  of  delightful  stories 
into  negro  dialect,  and  a  host  of  people  at  once 
began  to  quote  them.  In  New  York  Mr.  Julian 
Ralph  wrote  a  lot  of  humorous  sketches  under 
the  general  head  of  "  The  German  Barber,"  and 
the  newspaper  press  began  to  quote  them. 


574  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

Across  the  ocean  Max  O'Rell  began  to  satirize 
the  English  people  and  customs,  and  straightway 
his  books  sold  better  here  than  abroad. 

On  the  stage  and  platform,  as  everywhere  else, 
humor  is  the  most  popular  and  attractive  feat- 
ure. A  few  years  ago,  before  the  theatrical 
companies  could  easily  reach  any  city  or  large 
town,  the  lecture  was  a  favorite  means  of  enter- 
tainment, and  more  than  three  hundred  Ameri- 
cans and  foreigners  were  busy  every  winter  in 
hurrying  from  town  to  town  to  deliver  lectures. 
The  three  hundred  have  been  reduced  almost  to 
three,  but  there  is  room  there  still  for  any  one 
who  has  anything  humorous  to  say.  "  Bob  " 
Burdette,  more  popularly  known  as  "  The  Bur- 
lington Hawk-eye  Man"  works  himself  almost 
to  death  every  winter  in  going  all  over  the 
United  States  to  give  his  humorous  recitations. 
He  is  a  very  religious  man,  and  a  working  Bap- 
tist, but  people  never  ask  him  for  a  religious  ad- 
dress :  they  always  want  to  hear  his  fun.  An- 
other of  the  few  successful  men  remaining  on 
the  platform  is  A.  P.  Burbank,  a  man  who  for 
ten  years  has  determined  every  year  to  go  upon 
the  stage  in  legitimate  comedy,  but  so  humorous 
are  his  recitations  and  so  effective  his  manner  in 
delivering  them  that  those  who  have  heard  him 
before  insist  upon  hearing  him  more,  and  he 
goes  again  and  again  to  towns  where  he  has  been 
a  dozen  times  before,  each  time  to  find  his  audi- 


AMERICAN    HUMOR.  575 

ence  larger  and  more  appreciative,  and  each  time 
to  receive  the  assurance  that  they  will  want  him 
again  the  following  winter.  Little  Marshal 
Wilder,  who  never  took  a  lesson  in  elocution  in 
his  life,  and  has  been  cruelly  handicapped  by 
nature,  attempts  merely  to  make  people  laugh ; 
he  succeeds,  so  he  seldom  is  allowed  to  have 
an  evening  to  himself,  and  when  the  "platform  " 
season  is  ended  here  goes  over  to  England  and 
has  three  or  four  engagements  a  night. 

Everybody  knows  that  on  the  stage  humor 
takes  better  than  anything  else.  There  may  be 
a  great  tragedy  well  presented  on  the  boards  of 
a  city  theatre,  or  a  brilliant  spectacle,  or  a  so- 
called  emotional  drama  which  appeals  to  .every- 
thing improper  in  human  nature,  but  the  theatre 
which  is  presenting  a  good  comedy  can  always 
depend  upon  holding  its  own.  No  dead-head 
seats  are  to  be  had  at  such  theatres.  The  man- 
ager can  always  depend  upon  getting  money  for 
all  the  room  at  his  disposal.  The  fun  may  be 
very  rough,  sometimes  it  is  decidedly  vulgar,  but 
people  ask  as  few  questions  and  make  as  few 
protests  against  fun,  no  matter  what  its  kind, 
as  drunkards  do  against  the  quality  of  their 
whiskey. 

American  appreciation  of  humor  may  be  found 
also  in  the  number  and  wide  circulation  of 
periodicals  devoted  entirely  to  fun.  There  used 
to  be  a  theory  that  there  was  no  room  for  a 


576  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

humorous  paper  in  the  United  States  because 
the  ordinary  dailies  and  weeklies  indulged  in  so 
much  fun  themselves.  But  after  the  enormous 
success  of  Puck,  Judge,  Life,  and  some  other 
periodicals,  it  is  useless  to  argue  any  longer  on 
the  subject.  After  a  political  or  social  question 
has  been  apparently  worn  threadbare  in  editorials 
and  essays,  out  conies  one  of  these  papers  with  a 
pithy  saying  or  a  good  cartoon  that  carries  more 
influence  than  all  the  serious  talk  combined.  It 
matters  little  upon  which  side  of  the  question, 
even  in  politics,  these  professional  humorists  are 
found.  Their  hits  when  well  made  are  cheer- 
fully acknowledged  even  by  their  own  enemies. 
During  the  palmy  days  of  the  New  York  ring, 
Mr.  Nast,  the  cartoonist  of  Harper's  Weekly,  was 
offered  an  annual  allowance  several  times  larger 
than  his  salary  if  he  would  give  up  work  entirely 
and  go  abroad.  Humor  and  high  character  are 
often  allied  ;  one  of  the  strongest  illustrations  of 
the  fact  is  that  Mr.  Nast  without  any  hesitation 
refused  this  valuable  offer.  Some  of  the  abuses 
of  local  government  in  New  York  have  been  more 
effectually  fought  by  Mr.  Keppler  and  his  associ- 
ate artists  in  Puck  than  by  all  the  work  of  editors, 
lawyers  and  judges.  Puck's  influence  in  politics 
became  so  great  that  before  the  last  Presidential 
campaign  began  it  became  absolutely  necessary 
for  the  party  which  it  was  fighting  to  start  a 
humorous  pictorial  journal  of  their  own,  and  it 


AMERICAN    HUMOR.  577 

was  quite  safe  to  suppose  that  it  was  influential 
in  the  political  results  that  followed. 

A  delightful  thing  about  humorous  writings  is 
that  no  one  seems  jealous  of  their  influence  or 
afraid  to  give  them  greater  prominence.  The 
only  complaint  which  the  publishers  of  the 
humorous  weeklies  have  to  make  against  their 
brethren  of  the  daily  press  is,  that  their  own 
circulation  might  be  better  were  not  so  many 
of  their  good  things  promptly  reprinted  every- 
where. No  sooner  does  one  of  these  papers  come 
from  the  press  than  its  best  sayings  are  scissored 
and  reprinted  in  a  thousand  or  more  papers. 
Almost  any  daily  paper  of  large  circulation  seems 
to  think  it  necessary  to  have  a  humorist  of  its 
own.  They  pay  more  for  humorous  contributions 
than  for  any  other  class  of  matter,  and  all  of  them 
are  more  keenly  on  the  look-out  for  a  new 
humorist  than  for  a  possible  Presidential  can- 
didate. The  readers  of  the  daily  press  quote  for 
one  another  the  funny  sayings  of  their  favorite 
paper  long  before  they  think  of  mentioning  the 
other  contents ;  indeed,  most  of  them  are  so 
absorbed  by  the  fun  that  they  don't  seem  to  have 
remembered  anything  else. 

We  cannot  possibly  overestimate  the  value  of 
our  national  faculty  of  seeing  the  humorous  side 
of  things.  It  keeps  us  from  making  ourselves 
ridiculous ;  it  prevents  us,  both  as  individuals 
and  a  people,  from  being  laughed  at  for  anything 
37 


578  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

we  may  do  in  sober  earnest.  It  is  very  hard,  in 
this  day  and  land,  for  any  man,  society,  party  or 
church  to  be  a  fool  without  hearing  about  it  in  a 
good-natured  way  that  robs  the  rebuke  of  its 
sting.  It  is  not  so  in  other  countries. 

But  our  sense  of  humor  does  still  more  for  us. 
It  smooths  numberless  rough  places  in  the  path- 
way of  a  people  whose  road  is  not  easy  to  travel. 
It  averts  many  a  quarrel,  closes  dangerous 
breaches,  and  is  balm  to  wounds  that  otherwise 
would  smart.  It  is  almost  always  harmless. 
There  are  men  and  women  whose  fun  always 
lingers  upon  incidents  that  are  vulgar,  but  this  is 
a  fault  of  perverted  minds — not  of  the  humorous 
spirit.  It  is  a  better  introduction,  between 
strangers,  than  any  letter  or  form  of  words,  and 
it  expresses  much  in  little,  doing  it  more  effec- 
tively than  any  of  the  wise  saws  and  proverbs 
of  more  serious  races.  It  seems  irrepressible 
and  omnipresent ;  a  man  or  woman  may  be  too 
tired  or  sick  to  reason  or  to  think,  but  whoever 
saw  an  American  too  weary  to  see  the  point  of  a 
joke  or  to  offer  another  in  return  ?  We  need  to 
preserve  our  humor  almost  as  carefully  as  if  it 
were  our  character,  for  should  we  ever  lose  it  our 
character  will  be  the  worse  for  the  change. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

THE   HIGHER   EDUCATION. 

AMERICA  has  more  colleges,  so  called,  than  all 
the  other  civilized  nations  combined. 

These  institutions  of  learning  are  not  results 
of  accident,  or  accretions  of  church  reverences 
and  purposes,  like  the  great  universities  of  older 
lands.  Most  of  them  were  founded  and  have 
been  maintained  by  the  people  at  large,  and  these, 
until  recent  times,  were  very  poor.  They  are 
testimonials  to  the  level-head  and  tenacity  of  pur- 
pose of  the  American  people.  Says  President 
Gilman,  of  Johns  Hopkins  University  : 

"  That  tenacity  of  purpose  with  which  a  few 
settlers  in  the  wilderness  held  on  to  the  idea  of  a 
liberal  education,  in  spite  of  their  scanty  crops 
and  scantier  libraries,  their  wide  separation  from 
the  old-world  seats  of  learning,  and  their  lack  of 
professional  teachers,  is  one  of  the  noblest  of 
many  noble  traits  possessed  by  our  forefathers, 
who  were  never  so  weary  or  so  poor  that  they 
could  not  keep  alive  the  altar-fires  in  the  temples 
of  religion  and  of  learning.  Their  primitive  founda- 
tions did  not  depend  on  royal  bounty  or  on  feudal 

(579) 


580  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

liens  ;  they  were  supported  by  free-will  offerings 
from  men  and  women  in  moderate  circumstances, 
by  the  minister's  savings  and  the  widow's  portion. 
It  is  only  within  the  present  generation  that  large 
donations  have  reached  their  coffers.  The  good 
and  the  bad  we  inherit  in  our  collegiate  systems 
were  alike  developed  in  the  straitened  school  of 
necessity. 

"The  founders  of  the  original  colleges  were 
not  only  high-minded  and  self-sacrificing,  but 
they  were  devoted  to  an  ideal.  They  believed  in 
the  doctrine  that  intellectual  power  is  worth  more 
than  intellectual  acquisitions ;  that  an  education 
of  all  the  mental  faculties  is  better  for  the  hap- 
piness of  individual  scholars  and  for  the  advance- 
ment of  the  community  than  a  narrow  training 
for  a  special  pursuit.  Accordingly,  their  educa- 
tional system  did  not  begin  with  professional 
seminaries,  for  the  special  training  of  any  one 
class,  but  with  schools  of  general  culture,  colleges 
of  the  liberal  arts,  as  good  as  could  be  made  with 
their  resources  and  in  that  age.  Instead  of  an 
academic  staff  made  up  of  those  who  professed 
to  teach  some  special  branch  of  knowledge,  these 
colleges  had  a  master  and  fellows  (or  tutors), 
men  wrho  were  fit  to  teach  others  those  rudiments 
of  higher  learning  in  which  they  had  themselves 
been  taught.  Moreover,  as  years  rolled  on, 
instead  of  concentrating  personal  and  pecuniary 
support  upon  a  few  of  the  oldest  and  most 


THE   HIGHER   EDUCATION.  581 

promising  foundations,  far-sighted  men  built  up 
in  every  portion  of  the  land  colleges  correspond- 
ing in  their  principal  features  with  the  original 
foundations,  and  depending  for  maintenance  on 
the  beneficence  of  individuals. 

"  The  history  of  the  colonial  foundations 
abounds  in  examples  of  the  wisdom  and  self- 
sacrifice  with  which  they  were  conducted  under 
circumstances  which  called  for  devotion  to  a  lofty 
ideal.  No  one  can  study  the  biography  of  their 
graduates  without  discovering  that  they  were  the 
men  who  moulded  the  institutions  of  this  country. 
It  is  easy  to  point  out  deficiencies  in*  these 
academic  organizations,  as  it  is  to  criticise  the 
defects  of  the  emigrants'  cabins  and  the  foresters' 
paths  ;  it  is  easy  to  lament  that  a  deeper  impres- 
sion was  not  made  upon  the  scholarship  of  the 
world ;  easy  to  mention  influential  men  who 
never  passed  a  day  within  college  walls ;  easy  to 
provoke  a  smile,  a  sneer,  or  a  censure  by  the 
record  of  some  narrow-minded  custom  or  pro- 
ceeding. But,  nevertheless,  the  fact  cannot  be 
shaken  that  the  old  American  colleges  have  been 
admirable  places  for  the  training  of  men.  Let 
the  roll  of  graduates  of  any  leading  institution 
be  scrutinized,  or  even  the  record  of  a  single  class 
selected  at  random,  and  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
number  of  life  failures  is  very  small,  and  the 
number  of  useful,  intelligent,  high-minded  and 
upright  careers  very  large.  It  may,  therefore, 


582  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

be  said  that  the  traditional  college,  though 
commonly  hampered  by  ancient  conditions  and 
by  the  lack  of  funds  with  which  to  attain  its  own 
ideal,  has  remained  the  firm  and  valiant  sup- 
porter of  liberal  culture,  and  that  any  revolu- 
tionary or  rabid  changes  in  its  organization  or 
methods  should  be  carefully  watched.  Neverthe- 
less, as  we  proceed,  it  will  be  evident  that  changes 
are  inevitable  and  that  most  desirable  improve- 
ments are  in  progress.  The  child  is  becoming  a 
man." 

But  we  need  more  concentration  of  effort, 
money*  and  good  men,  both  as  instructors  and 
students,  in  colleges  where  the  highest  educa- 
tion may  be  obtained.  The  great  number  of  our 
colleges  is  a  source  of  weakness — not  of  strength. 
A  great  number  of  these  institutions  are  mere 
academies,  and  seem  to  have  been  founded  princi- 
pally to  keep  students  within  the  denominational 
fences  of  their  parents ;  the  college  is  charged 
with  what  should  be  the  special  work  of  parent 
and  pastor.  Says  President  Gilrnan : 

"  Every  important  Christian  denomination  has 
come  to  have  its  distinctive  college,  and  many  an 
argument  has  been  framed  to  prove  that  sectarian 
colleges  are  better  than  those  which  seek  to  pro- 
mote the  union  of  several  religious  bodies.  It 
has  not  been  thought  sufficient  that  a  college 
should  be  pervaded  by  an  enlightened  Christian- 
ity, nor  even  that  it  should  be  the  stronghold  of 


PRESIDENT  ELIOT 
(Of  Harvard  University). 


THE   HIGHER    EDUCATION.  583 

a  simple  evangelical  life  and  doctrine,  nor  that  it 
should  be  orthodox  as  to  the  fundamental  teach- 
ings of  the  Church ;  but  sectarian  influences 
must  everywhere  predominate,  among  the  trustees 
or  in  the  faculty,  or  in  both  the  governing  bodies. 
Hence  we  see  all  over  the  land  feeble,  ill-endowed 
and  poorly  manned  institutions,  caring  a  little  for 
sound  learning,  but  a  great  deal  more  for  the 
defence  of  denominational  tenets." 

President  Eliot,  of  Harvard,  thus  indicates  the 
results  of  this  spirit,  added  to  another  which  is 
still  less  pardonable : 

"  In  the  absence  of  an  established  church,  or 
of  a  dominant  sect  in  the  United  States,  denomi- 
national zeal  has  inevitably  tended  to  scatter 
even  those  scanty  resources  which  in  two  cen- 
turies have  become  available  for  the  higher  edu- 
cation ;  and  this  lamentable  dissipation  has  been 
increased  by  the  local  pride  of  States,  cities  and 
neighborhoods,  and  the  desire  of  many  persons, 
who  had  money  to  apply  to  public  uses,  to  found 
new  institutions  rather  than  to  contribute  to  those 
already  established — a  desire  not  unnatural  in  a 
new  country,  where  love  of  the  old  and  venerable 
in  institutions  has  but  just  sprung  up.  In  short, 
the  different  social,  political  and  religious  con- 
ditions of  this  country  have,  thus  far,  quite  pre- 
vented the  development  of  commanding  universi- 
ties like  those  of  the  mother-country." 

As  the  greater  colleges  increase  in  financial 


684  OUR   COUNTRY'S   FUTURE. 

and  intellectual  strength,  the  weaker  ones  must 
either  drop  out  of  existence,  or  be  satisfied  to  im- 
part merely  the  high-school  course  of  instruction, 
and  prepare  their  more  aspiring  pupils  to  enter 
colleges  worthy  of  the  name.  Ex-President 
White,  of  Cornell  University,  foreshadows  their 
future  as  follows : 

"  Our  country  has  already  not  far  short  of 
four  hundred  colleges  and  universities  more  or 
less  worthy  of  those  names,  besides  a  vast  num- 
ber of  high-schools  and  academies  quite  as 
worthy  to  be  called  colleges  or  universities  as 
many  which  bear  those  titles.  But  the  system 
embracing  all  these  has  by  no  means  reached  its 
final  form.  Probably  in  its  more  complete  de- 
velopment the  stronger  institutions,  to  the  num- 
ber of  twenty  or  thirty,  will,  within  a  generation 
or  two,  become  universities  in  the  true  sense  of 
the  word,  restricting  themselves  to  university 
work ;  beginning,  perhaps,  at  the  studies  now 
usually  undertaken  in  the  junior  year  of  our 
colleges,  and  carrying  them  on  through  the 
senior  year,  with  two  or  three  years  of  special  or 
professional  study  afterward.  The  best  of  the 
others  will  probably  accept  their  mission  as  col- 
leges in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  beginning 
the  course  two  years  earlier  than  at  present,  and 
continuing  it  to  what  is  now  the  junior  year. 
Thus  they  will  do  a  work  intermediate  between 
the  general  school  system  of  the  country  and  the 


THE   HIGHER   EDUCATION.  585 

universities,  a  work  wliicli  can  be  properly  called 
collegiate,  a  work  the  need  of  which  is  now  sorely 
felt,  and  which  is  most  useful  and  honorable. 
Such  an  organization  will  give  us  as  good  a 
system  as  the  world  has  ever  seen,  probably  the 
best  system." 

There  is  no  lack  of  money  for  institutions  of 
learning  which  show  special  aptitude  in  any 
direction.  A  belief  in  thorough  education  is 
common  to  almost  all  progressive  men,  whether 
they  themselves  are  college  graduates  or  "  self- 
made  "  men.  President  White,  after  naming 
many  men  who  have  given  largely  to  different 
colleges,  says  : 

"  Such  a  tide  of  generosity  bursting  forth  from 
the  hearts  and  minds  of  strong  and  shrewd  men 
who  differ  so  widely  from  each  other  in  residence 
and  ideas,  yet  flowing  in  one  direction,  means 
something.  What  is  it  ?  At  the  source  of  it 
lies,  doubtless,  a  perception  of  duty  to  the  coun- 
try and  a  feeling  of  pride  in  the  country's  glory. 
United  with  this  is,  naturally,  more  or  less  of  an 
honorable  personal  ambition ;  but  this  is  not  all ; 
strong  common  sense  has  done  much  to  create  the 
current  and  still  more  to  shape  its  course.  For, 
as  to  the  origin  of  this  stream,  the  wealthy 
American  knows  perfectly  that  the  laws  of  his 
country  favor  the  dispersion  of  inherited  wealth 
rather  than  its  retention  ;.  that  in  two  or  three 
generations  at  most  his  descendants,  no  matter 


586  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

how  large  their  inheritance,  must  come  to  the 
level  determined  by  their  character  and  ability  ; 
that  their  character  and  ability  are  most  likely  to 
be  injured,  and  therefore  the  level  to  which  they 
subside  lowered,  by  an  inheritance  so  large  as  to 
engender  self-indulgence  ;  that  while,  in  Great 
Britain,  the  laws  and  customs  of  primogeniture 
and  entail  enable  men  of  vast  wealth  to  tie  up 
their  property,  and  so  to  found  families,  this,  in 
America,  is  impossible ;  and  that  though  the 
tendency  toward  the  equalization  of  fortunes  may 
sometimes  be  retarded,  it  cannot  be  prevented. 

"  So,  too,  as  to  the  direction  of  the  stream ; 
this  same  common  sense  has  given  its  main 
channel.  These  great  donors  have  recog- 
nized the  fact  that  the  necessity  for  universal 
primary  education  will  always  be  seen,  and  can 
be  adequately  provided  for,  only  by  the  people  as 
a  whole  ;  but  that  the  necessity  for  that  ad- 
vanced education  which  can  alone  vivify  and 
energize  the  whole  school  system,  drawing  a  rich 
life  up  through  it,  sending  a  richer  life  down 
through  it,  will  rarely  be  provided  for,  save  by 
the  few  men  wise  enough  to  understand  a  great 
national  system  of  education,  and  strong  enough 
efficiently  to  aid  it. 

"  It  is,  then,  plain,  good  sense  which  has  led 
mainly  to  the  development  of  a  munificence  such 
as  no  other  land  has  seen  ;  therefore  it  is  that  the 
long  list  of  men  who  have  thus  distinguished 


THE    HIGHER    EDUCATION.  587 

themselves  and  their  country  is  steadily  growing 
longer." 

But  in  opposition  to  the  spirit  which  founded 
and  has  supported  our  many  institutions  of 
learning  there  has  arisen  a  pestilent  theory, 
born  of  the  sudden  increase  of  wealth  and  love  of 
luxury,  that  no*  education  is  worth  anything 
which  does  not  enable  a  man  to  make  more  money 
and  make  it  easier  than  his  neighbor  who  has 
had  no  liberal  schooling.  Because  technical 
schools — of  which  the  more  we  have  the  better 
off  we  will  be — teach  men  to  use  their  wits  about 
many  practical  things,  there  seems  to  be  prev- 
alent a  stupid  notion  that  material  things  are  all 
there  are  of  life,  and  that  sentiments,  principles 
and  aspirations  are  not  worth  cultivating.  Such 
stuff  might  do  if  we  were  a  nation  of  shopkeepers, 
but  we  are  not  that  kind  of  people.  For  each 
man  who  is  thinking  and  caring  only  for  money 
and  what  it  will  bring  him  are  half  a  dozen 
earnest,  clear-headed  people  who  know  that  all 
human  needs  are  not  satisfied  when  the  stomach 
is  full  and  the  senses  satiated. 

In  a  recent  and  admirable  address  to  a  college 
society  Bishop  Potter  fairly  stated  and  answered 
the  current  sneer  at  the  higher  education,  as  fol- 
lows : 

'  We  are  met  by  a  spirit  which  it  is  time,  I 
think,  that  we  recognize,  as  there  is  a  need  that 
it  should  be  challenged.  We  Americans  are,  of 


588  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

all  peoples  under  the  sun,  supremely  a  practical 
people.  No  mechanism  is  invented,  no  book  is 
written,  no  theory  is  propounded,  but  that 
straightway  there  is  heard  a  voice  demanding: 
'  Well,  this  is  all  very  interesting,  very  novel, 
very  eloquent ;  but  what,  after  all,  is  the  good  of 
it?  To  what  contrivance,  to  what  enterprise 
can  you  hitch  this  discovery,  this  vision  of  yours, 
and  make  it  work?  How  will  it  push,  pull, 
pump,  lift,  drive,  bore,  so  that,  employed  thus,  it 
may  be  a  veritable  producer?  Yes,  we  want 
learning  for  our  young  men,  our  young  women  ; 
but  how  can  it  be  converted  by  the  shortest  road 
and  in  the  most  effectual  way  into  a  marketable 
product  ?  '  '  The  man  of  the  North,'  says  De 
Tocqueville,  writing  of  our  North,  '  has  not 
only  experience,  but  knowledge.  He,  however, 
does  not  care  for  science  as  a  pleasure,  and  only 
embraces  it  with  avidity  when  it  leads  to  useful 
applications.'  And  the  worst  of  such  an  in- 
dictment is  the  fact  that  it  is  still  so  often  true. 

"  The  conditions  of  this  generation  demand 
that  we  should  be  reminded  that,  beyond  bodies 
to  be  clothed,  and  tastes  to  be  cultivated,  and 
wealth  to  be  accumulated,  there  is  in  each  one 
of  us  an  intellect  to  be  developed  and,  by  means 
of  it,  truth  to  be  discerned,  which,  beside  all 
other  undertakings  to  which  the  mind  of  man 
can  bend  itself,  should  forever  be  foremost  and 
supreme.  The  gratification  of  our  physical 


THE   HIGHER   EDUCATION.  589 

wants,  and  next  to  that  the  gratification  of  our 
personal  vanity  or  ambition,  may  seem  to  many 
people  at  once  the  chief  end  of  existence  and  the 
secret  of  the  truest  happiness.  But  there  have 
been  men  who  have  neither  sought  nor  cared  for 
these  things,  who  have  found  in  learning  for  its 
own  sake  at  once  their  sweetest  rewards  and 
their  highest  dignity. 

'  The  vocation  of  the  scholar  of  our  time  be- 
comes most  plain.  He  is  to  take  his  stand  and 
to  make  his  protest.  With  a  dignity  and  a  reso- 
lution born  of  the  greatness  of  his  calling  and 
his  opportunity,  he  is  to  spurn  that  low  estimate 
of  his  work  and  its  result  which  measures  them 
by  what  they  have  earned  in  money  or  can  pro- 
duce in  dividends.  Here,  in  his  counting-room 
or  his  warehouse,  sits  the  plutocrat  who  has 
amassed  his  millions,  and  who  can  forecast  the 
fluctuations  of  the  market  with  the  unerring 
accuracy  of  an  aneroid  barometer.  To  such  a 
one  comes  the  professor  from  some  modest  seat 
of  learning  among  the  hills,  minded  to  see  his 
old  classmate  of  other  days,  to  grasp  his  hand 
again,  and  to  learn,  if  it  may  be,  how  he  fares. 
And  the  rich  man  looks  down  with  a  bland  con- 
descension upon  the  school-fellow  who  chose  the 
company  of  his  books  rather  than  the  com- 
panionship of  the  market-place,  and  as  he  notes, 
perhaps,  his  lean  and  Cassius-like  outline,  his 
seedy  if  not  shabby  garb,  and  his  shy  and  rustic 


590  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

manner,  smooths  his  own  portly  and  well-clad 
person  with  complacency,  and  thanks  his  stars 
that  he  early  took  to  trade.  Poor  fool !  He 
does  not  perceive  that  his  friend  the  professor 
has  most  accurately  taken  his  measure,  and  that 
the  clear  and  kindly  eyes  that  look  at  him 
through  those  steel-bowed  spectacles  have  seen 
with  something  of  sadness,  and  something  more 
of  compassion,  how  the  finer  aspirations  of 
earlier  days  have  all  been  smothered  and 
quenched !  In  an  age  which  is  impatient  of  any 
voice  that  will  not  cry,  '  Great  is  the  god  of  rail- 
roads and  syndicates,  and  greater  yet  are  the 
apostles  of  '  puts  '  and  '  calls,'  of  '  corners  '  and 
pools ! '  we  want  a  race  of  men  who  by  their  very 
existence  shall  be  a  standing  protest  against  the 
reign  of  a  coarse  materialism  and  a  deluge  of 
greed  and  self-seeking. 

"  But  to  have  such  a  race  of  men  we  must 
have  among  us  those  whose  vision  has  been 
purged  and  unsealed  to  see  the  dignity  of  the 
scholar's  calling.  One  may  not  forget  that 
among  those  who  will  soon  go  forth  from  college 
halls  to  begin  their  work  in  life  there  must  needs 
be  many  to  whom  the  nature  of  that  work,  and 
in  some  sense  the  aims  of  it,  are  foreordained 
by  the  conditions  under  which  they  are  com- 
pelled to  do  it.  One  may  not  forget,  in  other 
words,  that,  with  many  of  us,  the  stern  question 
of  earning  our  bread  is  that  which  most  urgently 


PRESIDENT  DWIGHT 
(Ot  Yale  University). 


THE   HIGHER   EDUCATION.  591 

challenges  us,  and  which  we  cannot  hope  to 
evade.  But  there  is  no  one  of  us  who  may  not 
wisely  remember  that,  in  the  domain  of  the  in- 
tellect as  in  the  domain  of  the  spiritual  and 
moral  nature,  '  the  life  is  more  than  meat  and 
the  body  than  raiment,'  and  that  the  hope  of  our 
time,  or  of  any  time,  is  not  in  men  who  are  con- 
cerned in  what  they  can  get,  but  in  what  they 
can  see.  Frederick  Maurice  has  well  reminded 
us  how  inadequate  is  that  phrase  which  describes 
the  function  of  the  scholar  to  be  the  acquisition 
of  knowledge.  Here  is  a  man  whose  days  and 
nights  are  spent  in  laborious  plodding,  and 
whose  brain,  before  he  is  done  with  life,  becomes 
a  store-house  from  which  you  can  draw  out  a  fact 
as  you  would  take  down  a  book  from  the  shelves 
of  a  library.  We  must  not  speak  of  such  a 
scholar  disrespectfully ;  and  in  a  generation 
which  is  impatient  of  plodding  industry,  and 
content,  as  never  before,  with  smart  and  super- 
ficial learning,  we  may  well  honor  those  whose 
rare  acquisitions  are  the  fruit  of  painful  and 
untiring  labor.  But,  surely,  his  is  a  nobler 
understanding  of  his  calling  as  a  scholar  who 
has  come  to  see  that,  in  whatsoever  department 
of  inquiry,  it  is  not  so  much  a  question  of  how 
much  learning  he  is  possessed  of,  as,  rather,  how 
truly  anything  that  he  has  learned  has  pos- 
sessed him.  There  are  men  whose  acquirements 
in  mere  bulk  and  extent  are,  it  may  be,  neither 


592  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

large  nor  profound.  But  when  they  have  taken 
their  powers  of  inquiry  and  investigation  and 
gone  with  them  to  the  shut  doors  of  the  king- 
dom of  knowledge,  they  have  tarried  there  in 
stillness  and  on  their  knees,  waiting  and  watch- 
ing for  the  light.  And  to  these  has  come,  in  all 
ages,  that  which  is  the  best  reward  of  the 
scholar — not  a  fact  to  be  hung  up  on  a  peg  and 
duly  numbered  and  catalogued,  but  the  vision 
of  a  truth  to  be  the  inspiration  of  all  their 
lives." 

Among  the  departments  of  higher  education 
at  which  the  self-styled  "  practical  "  man  turns 
up  his  nose  are  the  mental,  moral  and  political 
sciences.  They  are  sneered  at  as  a  mass  of 
mere  theories  ;  good  enough,  perhaps,  to  help 
intellectual  natures  otherwise  unoccupied  to  pass 
away  the  time,  but  of  no  practical  good  in  the 
world.  Yet  President  Oilman,  whose  mind  runs 
largely  upon  applied  science,  says  of  these 
studies  : 

'  They  have  twofold  value — their  service  to  the 
individual  and  their  service  to  the  state.  It  is 
by  the  study  of  the  history  of  opinion,  by  the 
scrutiny  of  mental  phenomena,  and  by  the  dis- 
cussion of  ethical  principles,  that  religious  and 
moral  character  is  to  be  developed.  The  hours 
of  reflection  are  redeemed  from  barrenness  and 
made  fruitful,  like  sand-plains  irrigated  by 
mountain-streams,  when  they  are  pervaded  by 


THE  HIGHER  EDUCATION.  593 

the  perennial  currents  which  flow  from  the  lofty 
heights  of  philosophy  and  religion.  Above  all 
other  educational  subjects  in  importance  stands 
philosophy,  the  exercise  of  reason  upon  those 
manifold  and  perplexing  problems  of  existence 
which  are  as  old  as  humanity  and  as  new  as  the 
nineteenth  century.  For  its  place  in  a  liberal 
education  no  substitute  need  apply.  What  is 
true  of  the  moral  sciences  in  reference  to  individ- 
ual character  may  be  said  of  the  historical  and 
political  sciences  in  relation  to  the  state.  That 
nation  is  in  danger  of  losing  its  liberties,  and  of 
entering  upon  a  period  of  corruption  and  decay, 
which  does  not  keep  its  eye  steadily  fixed  on  the 
experience  of  other  nations,  and  does  not  apply  to 
its  own  institutions  and  laws  the  lessons  of  the 
past.  The  evils  we  complain  of,  the  burdens  we 
carry,  the  dangers  we  fear,  are  to  be  met  by  the 
accumulated  experience  of  other  generations  and 
of  other  climes." 

Yet  this  distinguished  teacher  would  not,  like 
some  men  of  equal  note  but  less  breadth  of 
character,  have  the  college  student  restrict  him- 
self to  these  departments  of  study.  He  shows 
himself  abreast  of  the  times  when  he  says  : 

"  A  liberal  education  requires  an  acquaintance 
with  scientific  methods,  with  the  modes  of  in- 
quiry, of  observation,  of  comparison,  of  eliminat- 
ing error  and  of  ascertaining  truth,  which  are 
observed  by  modern  investigators.  Such  an 

38 


594  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

acquaintance  may  be  better  secured  by  prolonged 
and  thorough  attention  to  one  great  department 
of  science,  like  chemistry,  physics,  biology,  or 
geology,  than  by  acquiring  a  smattering  of 
twenty  branches.  If  every  college  student  would 
daily  for  one  or  two  years  devote  a  third  of  his 
study  time  to  either  of  the  great  subjects  we  have 
named,  or  to  others  which  might  be  named,  he 
would  exercise  his  faculties  in  a  discipline  very 
different  from  that  afforded  by  his  linguistic  and 
mathematical  work.  He  would  not  only  find  his 
observing  powers  sharpened ;  he  would  find  his 
judgment  improved  by  its  exercise  on  the  cer- 
tainties of  natural  law.  He  would  never  after- 
ward be  prejudiced  against  the  true  workers  in 
science,  nor  afraid  of  the  progress  of  modern 
learning.  Whatever  might  be  his  future  voca- 
tion, ecclesiastical,  educational,  or  editorial,  he 
would  speak  of  science  with  no  covert  sneer 
and  with  no  suppressed  apprehension.  The 
more  religious  his  nature,  the  more  reverent 
would  he  become.  In  public  affairs  which  call 
for  a  knowledge  of  science,  he  would  know  how 
to  discriminate  between  the  quack  and  the 
authority,  and  he  would  be  quick  to  perceive 
in  how  many  departments  of  government  the 
liberal  use  of  scientific  methods  is  now  impera- 
tively demanded." 

If  no  other  purpose  could  be  attained  by  rais- 
ing the   standard  and  broadening  the  scope  of 


THE   HIGHER  EDUCATION.  595 

such  of  our  colleges  as  aspire  to  the  rank  of 
universities,  and  of  sending  to  them  all  of  our 
young  men  who  sincerely  desire  a  liberal  educa- 
tion, there  would  be  the  enormous  gain,  to  each 
student,  of  association  with  men  of  his  own  kind. 
Such  association  elsewhere  is  almost  impossible 
in  this  land  of  scattered  population  and' magnifi- 
cent distances.  Many  ill-balanced  "  cranks  " 
might  have  been  spared  us  could  active,  restless, 
inquiring  minds  have  been  placed  amid  congenial 
surroundings  instead  of  chafing  against  barren 
environments  and  consuming  their  minds  over 
trivialities.  Edward  Everett  Hale  is  credited 
with  the  saying  :  "  The  main  good  of  a  college  is 
not  in  the  things  which  it  teaches  ;  the  good  of 
a  college  is  to  be  had  from  the  '  fellows '  who  are 
there  and  your  association  with  them."  President 
Dwight,  of  Yale,  while  dissenting  from  the 
sweeping  first  clause  of  Mr.  Hale's  assertion, 
admits : 

"  But  4  the  fellows '  did  me  much  good  in  the 
way  of  my  education.  I  had  a  most  excellent 
and  worthy  set  of  friends,  especially  in  the  last 
year  of  my  college  life.  My  associations  with 
them  drew  me  out  of  myself,  and  gave  me,  in 
the  best  meaning  of  the  term,  the  sense  and  the 
impulse  of  good-fellowship.  As  bearing  upon 
my  preparation  for  my  life's  work,  this  association 
did  much  to  give  me  that  common  sense,  and 
sympathy,  and  warm-heartedness,  and  love  of 


596         OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

young  men,  and  comprehension  of  their  nature 
and  their  feelings,  the  value  of  which  is  so  great 
to  a  college  teacher.  The  college  friendships,  in 
their  best  development,  came  to  me  at  the  most 
fortunate  period — in  the  later  years  of  the  course. 
They  came  at  a  time  when  they  could  operate 
most  healthfully  and  happily  upon  all  that  I  had 
gained  from  my  studies  and  my  teachers,  and 
rounded  out  for  me,  if  I  may  so  express  it,  the 
education  which  belonged  to  the  university." 

One  requisite  to  the  greater,  success  of  our 
higher  colleges  is  a  better  class  of  students. 
When  fees  for  matriculation  and  tuition  formed 
an  important  part  of  the  income  from  which  a 
school  had  to  maintain  itself,  an  applicant's  de- 
fects of  preparation  or  personal  character  were 
winked  at;  but  this  no  longer  is  necessary  at 
Yale,  Harvard  or  any  of  the  half  dozen  younger 
universities  which  have  been  richly  endowed. 
No  one  should  be  received  as  a  student  who  does 
not  "  mean  business  "  and  who  is  not  quickly 
responsive  to  the  influences  about  him.  Says 
Prof.  Shaler,  of  Harvard : 

"  It  is  very  clear  that  the  essential  aim  of  our 
higher  educational  establishments  is  to  take 
youths  who  have  received  a  considerable  training 
in  preparatory  schools,  who  have  attained  the 
age  of  about  eighteen  years,  and  have  begun  to 
acquire  the  motives  of  men,  and  fit  them  for  the 
higher  walks  of  active  life.  To  the  youth  must 


THE   HIGHER   EDUCATION.  597 

be  given  a  share  of  learning  which  may  serve  to 
enlarge  to  the  utmost  his  natural  powers.  He 
must  be  informed  and  disciplined  in  the  art  and 
habit  of  acquiring  information.  He  must  also 
be  disciplined  in  the  ways  of  men,  in  the  main- 
tenance of  his  moral  status  by  the  exercise  of 
his  will,  in  self-confidence  and  in  the  faithful  per- 
formance of  duty  for  duty's  sake.  Every  influ- 
ence which  tends  to  aid  him  in  putting  away  the 
irresponsible  nature  of  the  child  should  be 
brought  to  bear;  every  condition  which  will  lead 
him  to  send  forth  his  expectations  and  ambitions 
from  his  place  in  the  school  to  his  place  among 
men  should  surround  him. 

"  Once  bring  a  young  man  clearly  to  feel  that 
his  career  in  life  is  fairly  begun  when  he  resorts 
to  college  or  the  professional  school ;  let  him  but 
conceive  that  his  place  in  life  is  to  be  determined 
by  his  conduct  in  preparation  for  it,  and  we  bring 
to  bear  a  set  of  motives  which  are  morally  as 
high  as  the  ordinary  motives  of  discipline  are  low 
in  the  moral  scale.  Just  so  far  as  the  work  of  a 
student  abounds  in  suggestions  of  his  work  in 
the  world,  so  far  as  his  teachers  by  their  conduct, 
as  well  as  by  their  words,  serve  to  arouse  his 
manly,  dutiful  sense,  the  education  effects  its 
true  end.  Every  youth  who  is  fitted  to  be  a 
student  in  our  higher  colleges  or  universities 
will  quickly  respond  to  the  stimulus  he  feels  in 
passing  from  the  disciplinary  conditions  of  child- 


598         OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

hood  to  those  which  are  fit  for  men.  If  he  be  in 
spirit  capable  of  scholarly  manliness,  we  may  be 
sure  that  his  ir  igination  has  forerun  the  con- 
ditions he  has  met  in  his  lower  schooling.  He 
has  longed  for  something  like  the  independence 
and  responsibility  of  manhood ;  for  an  advance  to 
the  place  of  trust  to  which  he  is  bidden." 

Our  higher  colleges  should  not  become  retreats 
for  that  large,  lazy,  irresponsible  class  of  young 
men  and  women  who  mistake  fondness  for  read- 
ing for  a  desire  to  study.  There  is  no  more 
deceptive  creature  alive  than  the  juvenile  book- 
worm. He  is  like  the  English  king  who  became 
noted  as  "  the  most  learned  fool  in  Christendom." 
Neither  should  feebleness  of  body  be  regarded 
as  an  indication  of  vigorous  intellect ;  this  mis- 
take has  filled  colleges  as  disastrously  as  pulpits. 
The  seriousness  of  ill-health  is  not  an  intel- 
lectual purpose ;  it  is  a  mental  disease,  and 
should  be  treated  by  the  gymnasium  instructor— 
not  the  college  professor.  President  White,  in 
outlining  the  university  of  the  future,  said : 

"A  long  observation  of  young  men  and  young 
women  has  taught  me  that  there  is  infinitely 
greater  danger  to  their  health,  moral,  intellectual 
and  physical,  from  lounging,  loafing,  dawdling 
and  droning  over  books,  than  from  the  most 
vigorous  efforts  they  can  be  induced  to  make; 
and  I  believe  that  most  thoughtful  teachers  will 
agree  with  me  on  this  point.  In  order  to  jet 


THE   HIGHER   EDUCATION.  599 

any  danger  of  the  sort  suggested,  it  will  be  ob- 
served that  I  have  insisted  on  a  proper  examina- 
tion as  to  physical  condition  at '  he  same  time  with 
the  regular  examinations  for  scholarships  and 
fellowships,  and  also  upon  frequent  reports  from 
the  successful  candidates  as  to  health  as  well  as 
progress.  The  expectation  of  such  examinations 
and  reports  would  do  much  to  guard  and  improve 
the  health  of  ambitious  young  scholars  in  every 
part  of  the  country." 

Our  higher  colleges  contain  some  admirable 
instructors,  but  the  average  quality  is  not  yet 
what  it  should  be.  President  Gilman  says : 

"  For  the  ordinary  instruction  of  under-gradu- 
ate  students  men  of  broad,  generous,  varied 
culture  are  needed  ;  men  who  know  the  value  of 
letters  and  of  nature  in  a  plan  of  study ;  men 
who  understand  their  own  views  because  they 
are  watching  the  necessities  and  the  transactions 
of  to-day  with  the  light  of  historical  experience ; 
men  who  believe  that  character,  intellectual  and 
moral,  is  more  important  than  knowledge,  and 
who  are  determined  that  all  the  influences  of 
college  life  shall  be  wholesome.  Such  teachers 
as  these  have  hitherto  constituted  the  faculties 
of  American  colleges  ;  their  names  may  not  have 
been  made  renowned  by  any  new  discoveries  or 
by  the  publication  of  any  great  treatises,  but 
they  have  impressed  themselves  on  generations 
c  pupils  who  have  in  their  turn  helped  to  form 


600          OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

the  best  institutions  which  maintain  the  nation. 
It  will  be  a  great  misfortune  to  American  educa- 
tion, if,  in  choosing  specialists  for  collegiate  pro- 
fessorships (as  must  be  done  in  future),  the 
authorities  fail  to  make  sure  that  these  specialists 
are  men  of  general  cultivation,  of  sound  morals 
and  of  hearty  sympathy  with  the  youth  they  are 
to  teach." 

But  what  are  college  trustees  to  do  ?  Most  of 
the  great  gifts  to  colleges  are  for  special  pur- 
poses— the  erection  of  buildings,  the  purchase 
of  instruments,  the  founding  of  a  library,  the 
purchase  of  a  telescope,  but  seldom  for  the  pur- 
pose of  securing  a  valuable  addition  to  the  faculty 
by  an  endowment  which  would  yield  a  sum  that 
would  justify  a  man  of  high  attainments  in 
abandoning  a  lucrative  profession  and  devoting 
himself  to  education.  Says  President  Gilman : 

"Is  it  not  time  for  all  who  are  interested  in 
college  foundations  to  call  for  large  donations 
for  the  increase  of  '  the  wages  fund  ?  '  Ought 
not  the  college  authorities  to  keep  in  the  back- 
ground their  desire  for  better  buildings,  and 
insist  that  adequate  means  must  first  be  provided 
for  the  maintenance  of  instruction  ?  It  will  be 
suicidal  if  a  prosperous  country  like  this  suffers 
its  institutions  of  learning  to  be  manned  by  men 
of  second-rate  abilities  because  they  are  cheaper, 
and  because  the  men  of  first-rate  powers  are 
turned  away  from  the  work  of  higher  education 


THE    HIGHER   EDUCATION.  601 

to  the  professions  of  law  and  medicine,  to  the 
ministry  and  to  business  pursuits,  as  giving  more 
hope,  more  comfort  and  more  freedom,  with 
equally  good  opportunities  of  usefulness  and 
with  prospects  of  higher  honor.  It  will  be  a 
shame  if  the  hoary  head  in  a  college,  instead  of 
being  a  crown  of  glory,  is  a  sign  of  poverty  and 
neglect.  A  college  professorship  should  be  liber- 
ally paid,  and  with  an  augmenting  salary,  so 
that,  in  this  respect,  it  may  be  at  least  as  attrac- 
tive as  other  careers  which  are  open  to  intel- 
lectual men.  If  the  very  best  men  are  not 
secured  for  the  work  of  instruction,  and  if  they 
are  not  made  so  easy  in  their  pecuniary  circum- 
stances as  to  be  free  from  care  on  that  account, 
farewell  to  intellectual  advancement,  farewell  to 
literary  progress,  farewell  to  scientific  discovery, 
farewell  to  sound  statesmanship,  farewell  to 
enlightened  Christianity ;  the  reign  of  bigotry 
and  dulness  is  at  hand." 

Our  colleges  need  more  scholarships  and  more 
fellowships.  It  ought  to  be  possible  for  any  one 
desirous  and  deserving  of  a  good  education  to 
obtain  it,  whether  he  be  son  of  a  prince  or  son 
of  a  pauper.  It  ought  also  to  be  possible  for  a 
brilliant  and  studious  graduate  to  be  specially 
rewarded  and  encouraged  by  being  supported  by 
his  Alma  Mater  so  long  as  he  continues  his 
studies  to  some  purpose  and  for  the  benefit  of  the 
college.  The  "  fellow  "  of  an  English  university 


602  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

may  be  a  mere  loafer ;  his  title  and  its  accom- 
panying allowance  of  money  call  for  no  return  ; 
they  are  merely  rewards  for  what  has  already 
been  done.  President  White  says  : 

"  I  would  allow  the  persons  taking  fellowships 
to  use  them  in  securing  advanced  instruction  at 
whatever  institution  they  may  select  at  home  or 
abroad.  Probably  the  great  majority  would 
choose  the  best  institutions  at  home,  but  many 
would  go  abroad  and  seek  out  the  most  eminent 
professors  and  investigators.  Thus,  eager, 
energetic,  ambitious  young  American  scholars 
would  bring  back  to  us  the  best  thoughts,  words 
and  work  of  the  foremost  authorities  in  every 
department  throughout  the  world ;  skill  in  the 
best  methods,  knowledge  of  the  best  books, 
familiarity  with  the  best  illustrative  material. 
From  the  scholars  thus  trained  our  universities, 
colleges  and  academies  would  receive  better 
teachers  ;  our  magazines  and  newspapers  writers 
better  fitted  to  discuss  living  political,  financial 
and  social  questions ;  the  various  professions 
men  better  prepared  to  develop  them  in  obedience 
to  the  best  modern  thought,  and  the  great  pur- 
suits which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  material 
prosperity — agriculture,  manufactures  and  the 
like — men  better  able  to  solve  the  practical 
problems  of  the  world.  Every  field  of  moral, 
intellectual  and  physical  activity  would  thus  be 
enriched.  All  would  be  anxious  to  train  students 


THE   HIGHER   EDUCATION.  603 

fitted  to  compete  successfully  for  these  fellow- 
ships, and  the  stronger  institutions  would  be 
especially  anxious  to  develop  post-graduate 
courses  fitted  to  attract  these.  I  can  think  of  no 
better  antiseptic  for  the  dry-rot  which  afflicts  so 
many  institutions  of  learning.  The  custom  of 
shelving  clergymen  unacceptable  to  parishes  in 
college  professorships  would  probably  by  this 
means  receive  a  killing  blow." 

Bishop  Potter  writes  as  earnestly  on  this  sub- 
ject, though  from  a  different  point  of  view: 

"  We  want  place  for  men  who,  whether  as 
fellows  or  lecturers,  shall,  in  connection  with  our 
universities,  be  free  to  pursue  original  investiga- 
tion and  to  give  themselves  to  profound  study, 
untrammelled  by  the  petty  cares,  the  irksome 
round,  the  small  anxieties,  which  are  sooner  or 
later  the  death  of  aspiration,  and  fatal  obstacles 
to  inspiration.  It  is  with  processes  of  thought 
as  it  is  with  processes  of  nature — crystallization 
demands  stillness,  equanimity,  repose.  And  so 
the  great  truths  which  are  to  be  the  seed  of  forces 
that  shall  new  create  our  civilization  must  have 
a  chance  first  of  all  to  reveal  themselves.  Some 
mount  of  vision  there  must  be  for  the  scholar ; 
and  those  whose  are  the  material  treasures  out  of 
which  came  those  wonderful  endowments  and 
foundations  which  have  lent  to  England's  uni- 
versities some  elements  of  their  chiefest  glory 
must  see  that  they  have  this  mount  of  vision." 


604  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

Higher  education  does  not  require  that  college 
discipline,  direction  and  supervision  should  be 
abated ;  on  the  contrary,  it  demands  more  active 
exercise  of  all  these  functions.  Some  quite  good 
and  earnest  men  go  to  college  only  to  read ;  their 
proper  place  is  a  large  library  in  a  city.  Others, 
taking  advantage  of  "  elective "  studies,  want 
to  plunge  into  a  groove  and  remain  there.  Elec- 
tive studies  have  their  advantages,  but  young 
men  are  seldom  fit  to  select  for  themselves. 
Says  President  Bartlett,  of  Dartmouth  : 

"  From  the  fact  that  he  has  not  been  over  the 
field,  the  youth  is  incompetent  to  judge  what  is 
the  best  drill  and  culture  for  him.  And  while 
diversity  of  ultimate  aim  may  modify  the  latter 
part  of  the  basal  education,  specialism  comes 
soon  enough  when  the  special  training  begins. 
And  those  institutions  seem  to  me  wisest  which 
reserve  their  electives  till  the  last  half  of  the 
college  course,  then  introduce  them  sparingly, 
and  not  miscellaneously,  but  by  coherent  courses. 
A  general  and  predominant  introduction  of  elec- 
tives is  fruitful  of  evils.  It  perplexes  the  faith- 
ful student  in  his  inexperience.  It  tempts  and 
helps  the  average  student  to  turn  away  from  the 
studies  which  by  reason  of  his  deficiencies  he 
most  needs.  It  gives  opportunity  to  the  lazy 
student  to  indulge  his  indolence  in  the  selection 
of '  soft '  electives." 

Fortunately  discipline  is  not  so  hard  to  main- 


THE   HIGHER   EDUCATION.  605 

tain  in  American  colleges  as  in  European  uni- 
versities. There  are  some  "  hard  boys "  at 
Harvard,  and  the  Yale  Cubs  often  make  night 
hideous  at  New  Haven,  nevertheless  the  Ameri- 
can student  is  generally  more  respectable  and 
law-abiding  than  his  foreign  brother.  Says  Presi- 
dent Eliot,  of  Harvard : 

'  The  habitual  abstinence  from  alcohol  as  a 
daily  beverage,  which  the  great  majority  of 
American  students  observe,  explains  in  some 
degree  the  absence  in  American  institutions  of 
all  measures  to  prevent  students  from  passing 
the  night  away  from  their  college  rooms  or  lodg- 
ings. The  college  halls  at  Harvard,  Yale,  and 
Princeton  stand  open  all  night ;  while  at  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  locked  doors  and  gates,  and 
barred  and  shuttered  windows,  enforce  the 
student's  presence  in  his  room  after  10  P.M.,  but 
are  most  ineffectual  to  restrain  him  from  any  vice 
to  which  he  may  be  seriously  inclined.  There 
is  more  drunkenness  and  licentiousness  at  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  than  among  an  equal  number  of 
American  students ;  but  this  fact  is  due  rather  to 
national  temperament,  and  to  the  characteristics 
of  the  social  class  to  which  English  students 
generally  belong,  than  to  anything  in  university 
organization  or  discipline.  Among  manly  virtues, 
purity  and  temperance  have  a  lower  place  in 
English  estimation  than  in  American." 

So  sensible  are  the  mass  of  American  students 


606  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

that  when  the  question  of  undergraduate  partici- 
pation in  college  management  was  raised  at 
Dartmouth  the  college  societies  reported  ad- 
versely on  the  plan,  and  the  college  paper,  edited 
by  students,  manfully  asserted,  after  a  plea  for 
strong  government,  "  What  our  colleges  really 
need  is  more  of  West  Point." 

Between  proper  government  and  amateur 
police  work,  however,  there  is  a  wide  difference. 
Ex-President  McCosh,  of  Princeton,  who  was  a 
studious,  quiet  man,  whom  no  one  could  have 
suspected  of  sympathy  with  wild  hilarity,  said : 

"  There  may  be  colleges,  but  they  are  few, 
which  are  over-governed  by  masters  who  look  as 
wise  as  Solomon,  but  whose  judgments  are  not 
just  so  wise  as  his  were.  In  some  places  there 
may  be  a  harsh  repression  of  natural  impulses, 
and  an  intermeddling  with  joyousness  and 
playfulness.  I  have  known  ministerial  pro- 
fessors denounce  infidelity  till  they  made  their 
best  students  infidel.  The  most  effective  means 
of  making  young  men  skeptics  is  for  dull  men 
to  attack  Darwin  and  Spencer,  Huxley  and 
Tyndall,  without  knowing  the  branches  which 
these  men  have  been  turning  to  their  own  uses. 
There  are  grave  professors  who  cannot  draw  the 
distinction  between  the  immorality  of  drinking 
and  snowballing.  It  is  true  that  we  have  two 
eyes  given  us  that  we  may  see,  but  we  have  also 
two  eyelids  to  cover  them  up ;  and  those  who 


THE  HIGHER   EDUCATION.  607 

have  oversight  of  young  men  should  know 
when  to  open  and  when  to  close  these  organs  of 
observation.  I  have  seen  a  band  of  students 
dragging  a  horse,  which  had  entered  the  campus, 
without  matriculating,  into  a  ^(^/y-student's 
room,  and  a  professor  with  the  scene  before  him 
determinedly  turning  his  head  now  to  the  one 
side  and  now  to  the  other  that  he  might  not 
possibly  see  it.  I  have  witnessed  a  student 
coming  out  of  a  recitation-room,  leaping  into  a 
wagon,  whose  driver  had  villanously  disap- 
peared, and  careering  along  the  road,  while  the 
president  turned  back  from  his  walk  that  his 
eyes  might  not  alight  on  so  profane  a  scene." 

But  between  mere  fun  and  out-and-out 
brutality  Dr.  McCosh  drew  the  line  sharply 
when  he  said : 

"It  is  certain  that  there  are  old  college 
customs  still  lingering  in  our  country  which 
people  generally  are  now  anxious  to  be  rid  of. 
Some  of  them  are  offsets  of  the  abominable 
practices  of  old  English  schools,  and  have  come 
down  from  colonial  days,  through  successive 
generations.  Thus  American  hazing  is  a  modi- 
fication of  English  fagging.  It  seems  that  there 
are  still  some  who  defend  or  palliate  the  crime — 
for  such  it  is.  They  say  that  it  stirs  up  courage 
and  promotes  manliness.  But  I  should  like  to 
know  what  courage  there  is  in  a  crowd,  in  masks 
at  the  dead  of  night,  attacking  a  single  youth 


608  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

who  is  gagged  and  is  defenceless !  It  is  not  a 
fair  and  open  fight  in  which  both  parties  expose 
themselves  to  danger.  The  deed,  so  far  from 
being  courageous,  is  about  the  lowest  form  of 
cowardice.  The  preparations  made  and  the 
deeds  done  are  in  all  cases  mean  and  dastardly, 
and  in  some  horrid.  I  have  seen  the  apparatus. 
There  are  masks  for  concealment,  and  gags  to 
stop  the  mouth  and  ears ;  there  is  a  razor  and 
there  are  scissors,  there  are  ropes  to  bind,  and  in 
some  cases  whips  or  boards  to  inflict  blows ; 
there  are  commonly  filthy  applications  ready, 
and  in  all  cases  unmanly  insults  more  difficult 
to  be  borne  by  a  youth  of  spirit  than  any  beat- 
ing. The  practice,  so  far  from  being  humaniz- 
ing, is  simply  brutalizing  in  its  influence  on  all 
engaged  in  it.  It  does  not  form  the  brave  man, 
but  the  bully.  The  youth  exposed  to  the  in- 
dignity this  year  is  prepared  to  revenge  it  on 
another  next  year.  A  gentleman  who  knows 
American  colleges  well  tells  me  that  in  those  in 
which  hazing  is  common  in  the  younger  classes 
the  very  look  of  the  students  is  rowdyish.  It  is 
astonishing  that  the  American  people,  firm 
enough  when  they  are  roused,  should  have 
allowed  this  barbarity  to  linger  in  our  colleges, 
great  and  small,  down  to  the  last  quarter  of  the 
nineteenth  century  of  the  religion  of  purity  and 
love." 

Our  universities  and   more    progressive   col- 


THE   HIGHER   EDUCATION.  609 

leges  are  slowly  but  surely  reshaping  them- 
selves on  the  lines  indicated  in  the  foregoing 
pages,  and  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  no 
graduate  can  be  excused  for  being  merely  book- 
stuffed  instead  of  educated. 

39 


CHAPTER   XXXVIIT. 

CULTURE. 

MORE  nonsense  is  talked  about  culture  than 
about  any  other  topic  of  general  interest,  politics 
not  excepted. 

People  speak  of  culture  as  if  it  were  something 
new,  whereas  it  is  about  as  old  as  humanity. 
Adam  and  Eve  thought  they  were  dipping  into 
culture  when  they  tasted  the  forbidden  fruit. 
They  got  into  it  in  earnest  when  they  found 
themselves  outside  the  gates  of  Paradise,  and 
were  obliged  to  make  the  best  of  all  their  facul- 
ties in  order  to  earn  a  living  and  bring  up  their 
family.  They  didn't  succeed  very  fast,  but 
neither  do  their  nineteenth  century  descendants 
who  talk  most  glibly  of  culture. 

Culture  is  alluded  to  by  some  people  as  if  it 
had  to  do  only  with  matters  of  taste,  whereas  its 
rightful  scope  is  so  great  that  it  includes  every 
human  faculty.  The  man  who  reads  largely  in 
what  is  called  polite  literature,  sees  noted  pic- 
tures, listens  to  the  great  plays  and  operas, 
dresses  in  good  taste,  avoids  shovelling  food  into 
his  mouth  with  a  knife,  has  an  intelligent  fond- 

(610) 


CULTURE.  611 

ness  for  bric-a-brac,  and  avoids  unpleasant  topics 
of  conversation,  is  called  a  cultured  person.  So 
he  is — in  these  particulars,  but  not  necessarily  in 
any  others. 

The  rage  about  culture  has  a  great  many 
ridiculous  features,  but  in  the  main  it  is  so 
genuine  that  those  persons  who  are  competent  to 
criticise  from  the  outside  such  developments  of  it 
as  appear  from  time  to  time  should  also  be  able 
to  see  in  it  seed  which  in  time  should  bear 
glorious  fruit.  All  great  movements'  and  im- 
pulses are  likely  to  be  contemptible  in  their  be- 
ginnings and  to  start  from  something  which  after- 
wards may  seem  a  mere  side  issue.  Culture  has 
begun  in  the  United  States  in  this  way :  that  is, 
the  culture  that  is  being  talked  about.  Of 
course  if  we  regard  the  word  in  its  truest  signifi- 
cance, the  impulse  for  which  it  stands  has  never 
been  even  dormant  among  us  ;  it  has  always 
been  active  and  generally  active  for  good.  Cul- 
ture in  its  highest  sense  was  the  purpose  of  the 
hard-headed  old  fellows  who  came  over  in  the 
Mayflower.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the 
Catholic  colonists  who  went  to  Maryland  very 
soon  afterwards.  All  these  people  saw,  or 
thought  they  saw,  in  the  conditions  of  life  in  a 
new  world,  opportunities  for  ridding  themselves 
of  the  vices  and  excrescences  peculiar  to  very  old 
civilizations,  and  saw  also  an  opportunity  for 
fulfilling  more  perfectly  the  mental,  moral  and 


612  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

spiritual  duties  which  they  believed  were  incum- 
bent upon  them.  "  The  tree  is  known  by  its 
fruit,"  and  these  early  colonists  of  ours  proved 
by  their  deeds  that  they  were  quite  as  earnest 
about  culture  as  the  most  prominent  member  of 
our  aesthetic  set  of  the  present  day. 

Regarded  from  the  standpoint  of  ideal  human- 
ity, culture,  as  we  understand  it  at  present,  is 
merely  a  seed,  and  the  ordinary  method  of  pro- 
gression must  be  patiently  awaited.  As  the 
Scripture  says,  "  First  the  seed,  then  the  ear, 
then  the  full  corn  in  the  ear."  Culture,  like  the 
cholera,  small-pox,  yellow  fever  and  other  in- 
fluences not  yet  entirely  subjected  to  the  will  of 
man,  has  a  way  of  breaking  out  at  unexpected 
places.  In  America's  early  days  the  impulse 
towards  culture  was  found  almost  entirely  among 
religious  people.  At  present  its  developments 
are  chiefly  distinguished  by  utter  lack  of  religion 
of  any  kind,  but  this  is  no  ground  for  despair  or 
even  doubt.  If  the  first  step  is  half  the  battle,  as 
we  are  told  by  a  highly  esteemed  old  saying,  the 
impulse  towards  culture  is  so  strong  in  this  coun- 
try that,  whatever  its  earlier  and  unguided  de- 
velopments may  be,  it  is  quite  safe  to  assume 
that  these  have  been  stimulated  by  the  charac- 
teristic American  impulse  towards  growth  of 
some  kind,  and  although  the  movement  may  not 
have  been  under  intelligent  direction  at  the  start 
it  will  be  placed  there  in  the  course  of  time  "by 


CULTURE.  613 

the  solid  sense  of  a  nation  whose  people  are 
always  quick  to  recognize  the  signs  of  the  times 
and  intelligent  in  modifying  them  for  their  own 
benefit. 

It  is  useless  to  deny  that  some  of  the  develop- 
ments of  the  alleged  modern  rage  for  culture  are 
unspeakably  ludicrous.  In  order  to  be  "  cul- 
tured"  some  men  seem  to  have  abjured  their 
manliness  for  the  time  being,  and  some  women 
have  forgotten  whatever  is  womanly.  Neverthe- 
less, people  who  are  laboring  under  extreme 
mental  excitement  on  any  one  subject  are  likely 
to  make  blunders  from  which  public  opinion  will 
pardon  them  in  the  course  of  time.  To  see  a 
woman  once  known  among  her  associates  as  a 
mother  in  Israel,  going,  in  charge  of  her  hard- 
headed  husband,  to  an  exhibition  of  a  mythologi- 
cal picture,  or  to  a  meeting  of  a  club  whose 
principal  interest  seems  to  be  in  the  turning  of 
the  moral  world  upside  down,  is  not  a  pleas'ant 
spectacle,  but  neither  are  the  beginnings  of  any- 
thing. We  must  creep  before  we  can  walk,  and 
who  is  there  who  has  not  looked  with  pitying 
and  sympathetic  e}re  upon  the  efforts  of  the  babe 
to  make  its  way  across  the  floor  ? 

The  majority  of  American  apostles  of  culture 
are  about  in  the  condition  of  the  aforesaid  babe. 
They  see  a  need  of  a  change  for  the  better  in 
some  respects,  and  so  far  as  their  minds  are  equal 
to  the  demands  made  upon  them,  they  endeavor 


614  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

to  direct  the  change.  As  a  rule  they  make  fools 
of  themselves  and  are  heartily  laughed  at  for  it. 
The  rebuke  does  them  good,  and  it  scarcely  can 
be  denied  that  their  earnestness  commands  a 
certain  quality  of  respect  which  is  never  lost 
among  the  people  of  the  United  States.  There  is 
no  other  part  of  the  world  in  which  sincerity  of  any 
sort  is  so  heartily  appreciated  as  here,  and  while  a 
man  who  gives  his  entire  thought  to  the  manner 
in  which  he  shall  enter  a  parlor  and  address  the 
various  persons  therein,  or  the  woman  who  fills 
her  sittiiig-rooin  with  blue  china  of  antique  pat- 
tern and  prays  Heaven  three  times  a  day  that 
she  may  be  enabled  to  live  up  to  it,  is  very  laugh- 
able, nevertheless  the  impulse  which  is  behind 
these  ridiculous  movements  is  entirely  in  keep- 
ing with  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  our  people, 
and  sooner  or  later  it  must  bear  fruits  far  better 
than  the  parent  stock  seems  to  promise. 

A  great  deal  of  fun  has  been  made  of  our 
alleged  culture,  and  most  of  it  has  been  entirely 
justifiable,  but  is  it  not  time  to  look  the  matter 
squarely  in  the  face  and  determine  whether  these 
people  at  whom  we  have  been  laughing  are  not 
after  all  in  the  right  to  the  extent  that  they 
are  looking  and  straining  towards  something 
better  than  they  are  accustomed  to  ?  This  is  a 
matter-of-fact  world,  and  nowhere  is  this  truer 
than  about  the  people  of  the  United  States.  For 
two  or  three  centuries  we  have  been  so  busy  at 


CULTURE.  615 

making  settlements,  building  houses  and  clearing 
land  and  cheating  the  Indians,  that  we  have  had 
very  little  time  to  give  to  matters  of  taste,  and 
still  less  to  devote  to  careful  and  broad  dis- 
cussions of  human  character.  Our  early  settlers, 
no  matter  from  where  they  came  or  what  religion 
they  professed,  were  under  the  impression  that 
they,  like  the  early  Hebrews,  were  the  Lord's 
chosen  people,  and  they  were  so  entirely  satisfied 
with  this  belief  that  they  neglected  to  make  some 
efforts  which  perhaps  would  have  made  them  more 
satisfactory  to  the  celestial  powers  that  be.  As 
time  went  on  and  the  people,  instead  of  being 
obliged  to  devote  their  whole  time  to  keeping  the 
wolf  from  the  door,  became  so  prosperous  that 
the  wolf  disappeared  entirely  from  their  minds, 
they  found  themselves  literally  in  a  condition  of 
gross  materialism.  Their  necessities  had  been  so 
absolutely  bound  to  material  things  that  there 
was  no  horizon  for  them  which  promised  any- 
thing better.  But  as  subsequent  generations 
attended  the  schools  and  read  a  great  many 
books  and  felt  themselves  free  from  the  daily 
pressure  of  necessity,  there  were  Teachings  out 
for  something  better  and  less  material.  Some- 
times it  was  in  a  religious  direction,  but  even  in 
New  England  it  was  impossible  to  restrict  the 
view  to  such  limits.  Taste  in  all  matters  began 
to  assert  itself,  and,  like  everything  else  which  has 
been  down-trodden  and  abused,  and  compelled  to 


HI 6  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

lie  dormant  for  generations,  matters  of  taste  were 
the  first  to  demand  attention.  The  developments 
of  this  impulse  were  at  times  extremely  funny. 
Young  women  who  could  find  no  other  sug- 
gestion in  their  surroundings  could  at  least  tie 
ribbons  about  old-fashioned  vases  and  bring  a 
century-old  family  teapot  to  a  position  of  honor 
among  the  family  Lares  and  Penates ;  old  books, 
long  tabooed  by  the  family,  were  brought  to  light 
again,  dress  began  to  receive  considerable  at- 
tention, and  men  and  women  even  wasted,  as 
they  conscientiously  imagined,  a  great  deal  of 
time  upon  the  aesthetics  of  house-building.  Look- 
ing at  the  results  it  is  impossible  to  compare 
them  to  anything  except  what  the  gardener  or 
nurseryman  finds  when  he  looks  to  the  blossoms 
or  fruit  of  a  number  of  plants  of  the  variety 
known  in  the  trade  as  "  seedlings."  All  came 
from  good  stock,  but  in  the  endeavors  to  change 
from  a  certain  quality  or  level  to  a  higher,  the 
mistakes  and  blunders  were  more  numerous  than 
the  successes.  From  several  hundred  seeds  of 
pear,  or  peach,  or  strawberry,  the  gardener  is 
delighted  to  obtain  a  single  new  variety  which  is 
worthy  of  cultivation,  and  in  American  "  culture" 
the  same  rule  holds  good.  There  have  been 
enough  of  blunders  to  make  a  whole  generation 
of  our  wiser  and  brighter  intellects  laugh  as  often 
as  a  new  number  of  any  of  the  humorous  papers 
appeared  from  the  press.  Yet  in  spite  of  all 


CULTURE.  617 

ridicule  the  good  work  has  gone  on,  and  once  in 
a  while  some  startling  development  has  occurred 
to  astonish  and  gratify  those  who  are  look- 
ing on. 

Ridiculous  though  many  of  the  developments 
of  so-called  culture  may  seem,  it  is  not  fair  to 
laugh  at  them.  They  are  beginnings  and  noth- 
ing else,  and  should  be  so  regarded  by  those  who 
are  observing  the  movement  most  closely.  It  is 
quite  safe  and  proper  and  also  inevitable  to  laugh 
at  the  young  men  and  young  women  who  assume 
that  the  culture  of  the  present  generation  has 
been  placed  in  their  hands  for  management  and 
development,  but  at  the  same  time  it  should  be 
remembered  that  everything  which  humanity 
has  accomplished  has  come  through  slow  and 
painful  successions,  and  that  there  never  can  be 
a  satisfactory  end  unless  there  is  a  beginning  of 
some  kind.  We  have  novels  of  culture  at  which 
all  well-balanced  people  laugh  ;  plays  of  culture 
which  seem  the  weakest  possible  reflection  of  the 
life  of  intelligent  people.  Culture  concerns  itself 
with  the  dress  of  men  and  women  and  makes  some 
of  its  exemplars  as  fearfully  and  wonderfully  ugly 
as  a  similar  number  of  scarecrows.  But  while 
all  this  is  admitted,  it  must  also  be  allowed  that 
these  people  are  sincere,  that  their  impulse 
is  right.  Their  energy  is  misdirected,  but 
those  who  are  without  sin  in  these  particulars 


618  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

are  the  only  ones  who  have  any  right  to  throw 
stones. 

There  was  a  movement  of  the  same  sort  in 
England  some  years  ago.  It  concerned  itself 
principally  with  literature.  It  made  itself 
supremely  ridiculous,  and  the  "  Delia  Cruscans  " 
have  afforded  material  for  the  fun  of  two  full 
generations  of  humorists.  Nevertheless,  the 
children  of  these  peculiar  people  succeeded  in 
ridding  themselves  of  the  faults  of  their  parents, 
and  some  of  the  most  delightful  people  in  Great 
Britain  to-day  can  trace  their  ancestry  back  to 
men  and  women  who  wrote  ridiculous  verses  and 
egotistic  essays  which  were  remarkable  for  noth- 
ing in  particular  except  their  faults. 

Culture  was  once  defined  by  a  man  of  high 
attainments,  large  eloquence  and  large  experience, 
as  intelligence  with  the  varnish  rubbed  off.  A 
better  description  could  hardly  be  given.  It  is 
the  impulse  of  all  earnest  and  ignorant  persons 
who  pay  attention  first  to  ornament  and  leave 
common  sense  to  make  its  way  at  a  convenient 
opportunity.  The  birth  of  culture  may  be 
observed  at  the  present  time  among  the  native 
Indians  of  our  own  border.  They  never  have 
washed  their  faces,  and  their  bodies  are  as  much 
worse  than  nature  intended  as  successive  coats 
of  paint  could  possibly  make  them.  Neverthe- 
less, the  impulse  of  these  wretches  is  entirely 
correct.  They  wish  to  improve  their  present 


CULTURE.  619 

appearance,  make  themselves  more  attractive  to 
their  fellow-beings,  and  command  more  respect 
from  persons  about  them.  They  are  ridiculed 
even  in  their  own  tribes,  for  low  though  the 
North  American  Indian  may  be,  he  is  not  desti- 
tute of  a  sense  of  humor.  Nevertheless,  the 
effect  of  this  display,  or  the  impulse  which  pro- 
duced it  upon  the  next  generation,  has  been  to 
impel  young  men  and  young  women  to  exchange 
the  breech-clout  and  head-dress  of  feathers  for 
the  garments  of  humanity.  Perhaps  they  have 
not  changed  an  entire  suit  at  a  time,  but  as  time 
goes  on  the  results  become  apparent.  There 
was  a  time  when  all  Americans  of  the  families 
which  were  recognized  as  first  in  the  land — be- 
fore any  white  settlers  reached  here — scorned  the 
idea  of  work  of  any  sort,  but  to-day  some  thou- 
sands of  Indians  can  be  seen  handling  the  hoe, 
shovel,  scythe  and  hammer,  and  assimilating 
their  daily  life  with  that  of  the  white  people 
about  them.  They  used  to  display  their  religious 
sentiments  by  slaughtering  their  fellow-men, 
or  subjecting  themselves  to  tortures,  but  at  the 
present  time  some  thousands  of  them  gather  in 
churches  of  different  denominations  every  Sun- 
day and  receive  the  word  in  its  purity  from 
clergymen  of  different  denominations. 

All  this  is  culture,  just  as  truly  as  the  ability 
to  criticise  pictures,  pick  books  to  pieces  or  cover 
mantel-shelves  with  bits  of  choice  bric-a-brac. 


620  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

It  may  not  be  according  to  the  taste  of  some 
advanced  apostles  of  culture,  but  the  truth 
regarding  the  impulse  and  its  development  and 
its  manifest  tendencies  cannot  be  denied  by  any 
one. 

These  remarks  about  the  North  American 
Indian  are  merely  for  purpose  of  illustration. 
The  white  man  may  not  have  begun  so  low,  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  his  progress  is  not  so  rapid. 
There  are  portions  of  the  United  States  to-day 
in  which  the  coffin-plates  of  deceased  members 
of  the  family  are  the  principal  ornaments  of  the 
parlor-mantel.  There  are  other  families  in 
which  the  "  sampler,"  worked  by  a  great-grand- 
mother, or  some  later  descendant's  "  herring- 
bone "  quilt  is  regarded  with  as  much  artistic 
reverence  as  is  paid  by  some  persons  to  an  un- 
doubted work  of  art.  Similar  modest  begin- 
nings and  slow  gradations  may  be  observed  in 
every  department  of  American  culture,  from 
matters  of  mere  taste  to  those  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  highest  interests  of  the  race. 
As  already  said,  men  must  creep  before  they  can 
walk,  and  so  long  as  any  development  or  stage 
of  the  progress  of  the  race  can  be  seen  in  active 
operation,  it  is  no  time  to  despair,  much  less  to 
find  fault. 

Against  the  current  impression,  however,  that 
culture  consists  only  in  personal  taste,  it  is  time 
to  enter  a  decided  and  indignant  protest.  Men 


CULTURE.  621 

and  women  are  numerous  who  speak  of  culture 
in  such  matters  as  if  it  were  the  sole  end  and 
aim  of  existence.  They  delight  in  a  vile  picture 
if  its  technique  is  absolutely  correct.  A  novel, 
or  an  opera,  or  play  which  no  one  would  read  in 
the  family  circle,  is  praised  unsparingly  if  it 
preserves  artistic  unity,  and  the  spirit  has  so  far 
degenerated  into  a  craze  that  the  word  "  sincere  " 
is  applied  even  to  chairs  and  dining-room  tables. 
Probably  all  new  ideas  must  run  mad  during  a 
certain  period  of  their  course.  Unless  generally 
accepted  authority  is  incorrect,  there  was  trouble 
of  this  sort  among  the  early  Christians ;  for 
particulars  see  some  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles.  All 
impulses  which  are  not  subject  to  direction  are 
likely  to  run  wild,  and  their  exuberance  is 
frequently  in  the  wrong  direction.  But  so  long 
as  clear  heads  and  clean  hearts  exist  they  will  be 
subjected  to  such  criticism  and  comment  as 
will  compel  all  necessary  reforms  sooner  or 
later. 

When  the  werd  "  culture  "  reaches  its  proper 
significance  among  American  people,  it  will,  if 
properly  followed,  raise  us  to  a  level  which  at 
present  there  are  no  indications  of  our  attaining 
at  once.  There  is  no  sentiment  or  impulse  of 
the  human  mind  which  is  not  capable  of  culture, 
and  when  the  full  scope  of  this  impulse  is 
recognized  there  will  be  less  to  find  fault  with  or 
to  be  the  subject  of  sarcasm  and  satire.  There 


622  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

is  nothing  wrong  about  the  word  or  the  principle. 
The  trouble  at  the  present  time  is  simply  with 
its  application.  It  is  too  late  in  the  history  of 
the  world  to  make  fun  of  culture.  The  word  in 
its  highest  sense  stands  for  all  the  progress  that 
the  world  has  made  in  any  respect  since  the 
beginning.  Every  struggle  of  the  human  race 
towards  something  higher  and  better  that  is 
recorded  in  Holy  Writ  is  culture  pure  and 
simple — nothing  more  and  nothing  less.  It  was 
culture  which  Moses  endeavored  to  force  upon 
the  early  Hebrews,  and  which  later  prophets, 
priests  and  kings  worked  for,  each  in  his  own 
way.  It  was  culture  of  the  highest  order  for 
which  Jesus  labored  during  his  active  ministry 
on  earth,  and  which  the  faithful  believe  he  still 
is  superintending.  Every  effort  of  conscientious 
parents  in  the  family  is  in  the  direction  of  cul- 
ture. Every  gain  which  law  and  order  makes  in 
nation  or  community  is  for  the  sake  of  culture. 
The  name  of  the  sentiment  appealed  to  is  of 
secondary  consideration.  Culture  means  im- 
provement. Whether  of  the  soil,  the  material 
man,  the  spiritual  man  or  his  surroundings,  there 
is  nothing  more  nor  anything  less  of  it  than 
may  be  described  by  the  simple  word  "  culture." 
To  assume  that  it  is  nothing  more  than  the 
dilettanti  of  to-day  write  about  in  the  magazines 
and  newspapers,  and  that  some  self-sufficient 
people  endeavor  to  act  out  in  their  respective 


CULTURE.  623 

social  circles,  is  the  veriest  nonsense.  There 
is  nothing  new  whatever  about  culture.  There 
never  will  be.  So  long  as  the  world  stands  and 
men  and  women  look  forward  to  things  better, 
higher  and  purer  than  those  they  now  enjoy,  the 
word  culture  will  deserve  an  honorable  place  in 
every  dictionary  and  in  the  minds  of  every  man 
and  woman.  It  is  quite  right  to  laugh  at  the 
blunders  of  those  who  mistakenly  assume  to 
lead  their  fellow-beings,  but  the  fact  never 
should  be  forgotten  that  even  bad  leaders  are 
nseful  in  the  world,  if  only  to  teach  the  mass  of 
the  people  what  to  avoid. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

OUR     GREAT     CONCERN. 

OURS  is  the  greatest  land  in  the  world,  and  we, 
the  people  of  these  United  States,  ought  to  be 
the  greatest  people. 

At  the  present  time  it  does  not  require  any 
great  amount  of  conceit  to  make  us  believe  that 
we  are  superior  to  our  neighbors,  but  it  will  not 
do  to  forget  that  the  faculty  of  being  up  and 
growing  is  not  one  of  which  we  have  a  mo- 
nopoly. 

One  of  the  founders  of  the  Republic  said : 
u  Eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty."  He 
might  have  added  that  it  is  the  price  of  pretty 
miirch  everything  else  worth  having  and  keeping. 

We  Americans  have  led  the  world  in  a  great 
many  respects  in  most  unexpected  ways  and  at 
unexpected  times,  but  seldom  does  a  year  pass  in 
which  we  do  not  discover  that  we  have  no  mo- 
nopoly of  the  art  of  taking  the  lead.  In  one  way 
or  other,  some  nations  of  the  earth  are  continually 
showing  themselves  superior  to  us  in  some  re- 
spects. We  have  needed  a  great  many  warnings 
of  this  kind,  and  we  will  need  a  great  many  more 

(624) 


OUR   GREAT   CONCERN.  625 

unless  we  act  more  promptly  upon  those  which 
have  already  been  granted  us. 

We  have  had  enough  success  in  other  days  to 
make  us  very  conceited,  so  it  is  natural  that  oc- 
casionally we  fall  behind  our  competitors  through 
the  blindness  of  our  fancied  security.  There 
was  a  time  when  American  sails  whitened  every 
ocean,  and  more  American  ships  could  be  seen  in 
foreign  ports  than  those  of  two  or  three  other 
nations  combined.  The  man  who  would  now  go 
out  in  a  foreign  port  to  look  for  an  American 
flag,  determining  not  to  break  his  fast  till  he 
found  one,  would  stand  a  fair  chance  of  starving 
to  death.  Whether  the  disappearance  of  our 
flag  from  commerce  is  due  only  to  the  ravages 
of  the  Alabama  and  her  sister  privateers,  or  to 
the  navigation  lawrs  now  in  force,  is  not  to  the 
point  of  the  present  situation,  which  is,  that  un- 
expectedly to  ourselves  and  all  the  rest  of  the 
world  we  have  taken  the  lowest  position  among 
the  nations  as  carriers  of  what  we  have  to  buy 
and  sell,  and  that  we  do  not  show  any  indications 
whatever  of  ever  resuming  our  old  position. 

Another  instance :  Within  the  memory  of  half 
the  people  now  alive,  the  world  heard  that  Cot- 
ton was  king,  and,  as  cotton  was  obtainable  only 
from  America,  Americans  proudly  assumed  to  be 
the  commercial  rulers  of  the  world.  Owing  to  a 
little  family  trouble  on  this  side  of  the  water,  the 
other  nations  began  to  look  about  elsewhere  for 

40 


G-J6  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

their  cotton.  They  found  some  in  unexpected 
places,  and  have  been  finding  it  there  ever  since. 
We  still  produce  more  cotton  than  any  other 
country,  but  we  are  not  kings  of  the  cotton  mar- 
ket any  longer. 

Then  came  the  time  when  Corn  was  king.  It 
is  true  we  did  not  ship  much  of  it  in  the  grain, 
but  between  putting  it  into  pork  and  putting  it 
into  whiskey,  our  corn  became  the  first  cause  of 
the  loading  many  thousands  of  ships  to  different 
foreign  countries.  Foreigners  have  eyes  in  their 
heads  and  they  began  to  look  about  and  see 
whether  they  could  not  produce  pork  and  whis- 
key as  cheaply  as  those  people  across  the  water, 
who  had  to  send  their  products  three  thousand 
miles  or  more  to  find  a  market.  They  succeeded. 
At  the  present  day,  although  our  distilleries  and 
pig-styes  are  in  active  operation,  a  great  deal  of 
distilled  liquors  and  also  a  great  deal  of  the  meat 
of  the  hog  comes  this  way  across  the  ocean.  The 
market  still  is  good  abroad  for  American  hams, 
sides,  shoulders,  bacon  and  lard,  but  the  bottom 
has  dropped  out  of  the  whiskey  market,  and 
seems  to  show  no  signs  of  a  desire  to  return. 

For  a  number  of  years,  and  until  very  recently, 
our  wheat  had  made  us  commercially,  in  one  sense 
at  least,  the  superior  of  all  the  other  nations  of 
the  world.  The  finer  breadstuffs  were  not  to  be 
had  in  Europe  except  from  American  sources. 
Year  by  year  the  price  of  wheat  increased  until 


OUR   GREAT  CONCERN.  627 

the  American  farmer  became  so  enviable  an  indi- 
vidual that  a  great  many  merchants  went  out  of 
business,  bought  farms,  and  attempted  to  com- 
pete with  him.  As  is  usually  the  case  when  any 
business  is  so  flourishing  that  every  one  wishes 
to  go  into  it,  endeavors  were  being  made  by  hun- 
dreds of  sharp-eyed  observers  to  see  whether 
wheat  might  not  be  more  profitably  produced  in 
other  portions  of  the  world,  and  the  success 
which  attended  these  observations  has  been  any- 
thing but  gratifying  to  the  American  farmer. 
Russia  and  Hungary  are  producing  more  wheat 
than  ever  before.  Wheat  is  pouring  into  Europe 
from  Asia,  and  even  from  Africa,  and  the  Ameri- 
can farmer  now  is  not  quite  so  sure  as  to  what 
will  be  the  result  of  a  good  crop  of  wheat — not 
sure  whether  it  will  yield  a  profit  or  fail  to  pay 
expenses.  Even  the  reductions  in  freight  rates, 
alike  from  the  agricultural  districts  to  the  sea- 
shore and  from  America  to  Europe,  do  not  com- 
pensate him  for  the  great  reduction  in  the  price 
of  what  once  he  fondly  believed  was  an  enduring 
source  of  profit.  The  time  when  it  was  safe  to 
put  an  entire  farm  into  wheat  has  passed.  Far- 
mers are  studying  mixed  crops  now  with  all  the 
intelligence  that  is  in  them,  for  a  man's  first 
duty  is  to  earn  food  for  his  family. 

Again,  when  it  was  discovered  that,  helped  by 
some  refrigerating  process,  we  could  send  fresh 
meat  to  Europe,  the  whole  country  arose,  cheered 


628  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

and  patted  itself  upon  the  back.  Now,  surely 
the  whole  world  would  be  at  our  feet,  for  were  we 
not  feeding  Englishmen,  Frenchmen  and  Ger- 
mans cheaper  than  any  of  their  home  producers 
could  do  it  ?  Our  self-satisfaction  increased  when 
it  was  discovered  that  live  cattle  also  could  be 
sent  over  to  Europe  in  immense  quantities  and 
pay  a  handsome  profit  in  spite  of  occasional 
losses  due  to  storms  and  injudicious  loading  of 
the  vessels  which  carried  the  animals.  About 
this  time  ranches  began  to  cover  all  ground  in 
the  far  West  that  was  fit  at  all  for  grazing,  and 
the  estates,  nominally  the  property  of  those  who 
managed  them,  came  to  be  of  baronial  extent. 
But  what  America  could  do,  Australia  began  to 
think  she  also  could  do,  and  even  South  Africa 
was  not  averse  to  experimenting  in  the  same  di- 
rection. We  still  send  a  great  deal  of  meat  to 
Europe,  but  ranch  property  is  not  as  much  in 
demand  as  once  it  was.  There  are  ranches  now 
to  be  had  for  the  taking,  but  the  takers  are  few. 

Just  before  the  ranch  fever  began,  we  struck 
oil — struck  it  in  such  immense  quantities,  and 
also  found  men  so  competent  to  make  it  fit  for 
general  use,  that  petroleum  in  some  of  its  forms 
promised  to  be  the  leading  export  article  of  the 
United  States.  There  was  not  a  civilized  quarter 
of  the  world  in  which  one  couldn't  find  the 
American  kerosene  oil  can.  Our  oil  still  con- 
tinues to  go  abroad  in  immense  quantities,  but 


OUR  GREAT  CONCERN.  629 

the  fortunes  which  have  been  made  upon  it 
have  stimulated  prospectors  all  over  the  world, 
and,  as  it  is  known  that  oil  is  not  restricted  to 
any  single  hemisphere,  or  even  grand  division 
of  the  world,  the  prospects  begin  to  look  rather 
dismal  for  America  retaining  supremacy  in  this 
particular  article  of  commerce.  The  Asiatic  oil 
wells  are  far  more  valuable  than  ours  and  are 
worked  at  less  expense,  and  the  supply  can  be 
distributed  in  Europe  quite  as  easily  and  cheaply 
as  that  from  the  American  wells  and  refineries. 
Evidently  we  can't  afford  to  depend  upon  oil 
alone.  Large  fortunes  have  been  made  upon  it, 
but  there  is  an  old  song  which  says  :  "  The  mill 
can  never  grind  with  the  water  that  is  passed." 
We  need  something  new  to  keep  us  at  the  fore. 
What  it  is  to  be  has  not  yet  been  discovered. 

Some  few  unfulfilled  expectations  of  this  kind, 
some  great  commercial  disappointments,  are 
probably  necessary  to  divest  us  of  part  of  the 
overweening  self-confidence  which  is  peculiar  to 
the  inhabitants  of  all  new  countries.  Simple 
and  unquestioning  belief  in  manifest  destiny  and 
all  that  sort  of  talk  has  quite  a  stimulating  ef- 
fect at  times,  but  it  also  is  likely  to  lull  people 
into  a  false  sense  of  security.  It  already  has 
done  so  to  a  large  extent  in  the  United  States. 
We  have  been  so  well  satisfied  that  we  were  su- 
perior in  intelligence  and  resources  to  any  other 
land  on  the  face  of  the  earth  that  we  have  been 


()30  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

inattentive  to  some  of  our  greater  interests.  The 
shipping  of  raw  materials  of  any  kind  is  a 
reputable  division  of  industry,  but  it  is  not  the 
highest  result  at  which  a  nation  should  aim,  nor 
should  any  amount  of  success  at  it  blind  the 
people  to  their  greater  duties,  responsibilities  and 
opportunities. 

On  the  other  hand,  no  other  nation  of  the 
world  has  so  much  as  we  to  be  thankful  for  and 
to  encourage  them.  We  have  no  bad  neighbors 
who  are  strong  enough  for  us  to  be  afraid  of,  and 
all  the  greater  powers  of  the  world  are  far  enough 
away  to  take  very  little  interest  in  us,  unless  we 
annoy  them  in  some  way.  We  do  not  have  to 
squander  the  energies  and  sometimes  the  life- 
blood  of  our  race  by  putting  all  our  young  men 
into  armies  and  navies  and  teaching  them  dis- 
trust, suspicion,  cruelty  and  the  spirit  of  rapine. 
Our  taxes  are  heavy,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  our 
national  debt,  once  so  enormous,  is  being  re- 
duced with  such  rapidity  that  soon  we  will  show 
the  world  the  astonishing  spectacle  of  a  great 
nation  without  a  debt.  There  is  nowhere  else  in 
the  world  where  a  person  with  money  to  invest 
and  desiring  it  to  remain  absolutely  secure,  no 
matter  at  how  small  a  rate  of  interest,  cannot 
quickly  obtain  the  securities  of  his  own  govern- 
ment for  his  gold  or  notes,  but  here  there  is  very 
little  encouragement  any  longer  to  buy  the  na- 
tional bonds,  for  they  are  being  redeemed  at  a 


OUR   GREAT   CONCERN.  631 

rate  which  makes  it  almost  impossible  for  any 
one  to  retain  them  with  certainty  for  a  long 
time  as  a  permanent  investment.  Holders  of  the 
debts  of  other  countries  expect  never  to  have 
their  principal  redeemed ;  they  are  satisfied  to 
get  interest  perpetually,  as  undoubtedly  they  will 
unless  the  debts  are  repudiated.  There  is  very 
little  possibility  of  any  foreign  country  of  the 
first  class  ever  discharging  all  of  its  financial  ob- 
ligations so  far  as  principal  is  concerned,  unless 
it  provokes  a  fight  with  the  United  States  and 
holds  our  cities  for  ransom.  If  we  must,  and 
certain  economists  say  we  must,  continue  to  ex- 
tract a  large  amount  of  money  from  the  pockets 
of  the  people,  we  will  at  least  have  the  satisfac- 
tion of  seeing  it  spent  for  something  besides  dead 
horses. 

We  also  are  reducing  the  proportion  of  our 
uneducated  and  ignorant  classes  at  a  rapid  and 
gratifying  rate.  Other  countries  are  working  in 
this  direction  with  more  skill,  thoughtfulness 
and  accurate  appliances,  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
they  have  to  contend  against  the  apathy  of  a  large 
portion  of  the  population,  an  article  which,  hap- 
pily, in  this  country  is  of  very  small  proportions. 
Besides  the  vast  mass  of  uneducated  beings  who 
have  come  to  us  as  immigrants,  we  have  also  the 
entire  colored  population  of  the  South,  but 
schools  are  built  so  rapidly  and  all  classes  of  our 
people,  even  the  most  ignorant  of  blacks,  are  so 


632  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

ambitious  to  be  as  good  as  any  other  class,  that 
it  is  not  at  all  difficult  to  get  children  to  school 
and  to  persuade  parents  to  take  a  hearty  interest 
in  education.  Whatever  may  be  our  faults  in 
the  future,  ignorance  promises  not  to  be  one  of 
them. 

There  is  another  side  to  this  subject,  and  one 
which  cannot  too  quickly  begin  to  turn  the 
thoughtful  portion  of  the  public.  "  A  little 
learning  is  a  dangerous  thing,"  is  a  sentiment 
which  has  frequently  been  quoted.  The  inherent 
right  of  every  citizen  to  reach  the  highest  office 
of  the  government  has  so  stimulated  ambition 
that  almost  any  one  is  willing  to  try  for  the  posi- 
tion whether  fit  or  not,  and  the  same  statement 
holds  good  regarding  every  other  place  of  trust 
or  profit  in  public  or  private  life.  Half-educated 
men,  men  of  almost  no  education,  have  brought 
this  country  to  great  peril  again  and  again. 
Their  numbers  are  constantly  increasing.  We 
must  be  on  guard  against  them.  Misdirected 
activity  is  worse  than  no  activity  at  all,  but  there 
is  something  worse  than  that,  and  it  is  the  cease- 
less ambition  of  men  whose  conscience  does  not 
keep  pace  with  their  intelligence.  The  school 
supplies  intelligence,  but  conscience  is  something 
which  cannot  be  made  to  order,  and  no  institu- 
tion under  charge  and  supervision  of  a  govern- 
ment can  be  expected  to  supply  it.  The  nations 
of  the  Old  World  have  attempted  to  do  it  for 


OUR   GREAT  CONCERN.  63.°> 

centuries  through  the  medium  of  the  church,  but 
good  and  noble  and  self-sacrificing  though  the 
church  has  been  at  many  times  and  in  many 
lands,  its  ministrations  cannot  be  forced  upon 
those  who  are  unwilling  to  receive  them. 

The  only  available  substitute  is  a  high  stand- 
ard of  public  morality.  This  is  voiced  by  the 
press,  by  the  pulpit  and  in  private  life ;  but,  un- 
fortunately, when  it  reaches  the  domain  of  poli- 
tics, it  immediately  becomes  confused  and  en- 
feebled. A  higher  standard  must  be  set  by  par- 
ties and  maintained  by  the  leaders  and  voters  and 
adherents  of  those  parties.  The  hypocrisy  of  all 
political  utterances  has  been  proved  over  and  over 
again  during  the  past  few  years  in  the  United 
States.  No  man  of  honesty  and  high  purpose 
can  help  blushing  for  shame  when  he  reviews 
the  broken  promises  of  his  own  political  organi- 
zation, no  matter  what  it  may  be.  "  Promises, 
like  pie-crusts,  are  made  to  be  broken,"  says  the 
practical  politician,  and  while  for  three  years  and 
six  months  of  every  four  the  respectable  citizen 
protests  against  such  shameful  disregard  of  pub- 
lic and  private  morals,  in  the  remaining  six 
months  he  is  likely  to  give  his  tacit  assent  and 
his  active  vote  to  the  party  with  which  he  has 
always  acted  in  politics,  regardless  of  who  may 
be  its  leaders  and  what  may  be  its  actual  inten- 
tions. Until  both  parties  line  down  this  disgrace 
and  dishonor  there  will  be  a  weak  joint  in  our 


1)34  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

armor  and  our  enemies  will  sooner  or  later  dis- 
cover a  way  of  piercing  it.  "  Righteousness  ex- 
alteth  a  nation,"  says  an  authority  which  most 
Americans  regard  with  great  respect — except 
during  a  Presidential  campaign. 

The  stability  and  peace  of  our  nation  should  be 
the  great  concern  of  our  people,  and  as  there  is 
not  a  private  virtue  which  may  not  be  influential 
in  this  direction,  each  individual  has  it  in  his  power 
to  further  the  great  purpose  of  the  community. 
All  the  other  nations  envy  us — envy  us  our  form 
of  government,  our  freedom  from  conscription, 
large  armies,  privileged  classes,  vested  rights, 
ugly  neighbors,  churchly  impositions  and  hope- 
less debts.  But  we  can  maintain  all  these 
features  of  superiority  only  by  maintaining  an 
honest  and  intelligent  government.  We  cannot 
do  it  by  being  blind,  unreasoning  partizans  of 
any  political  organization.  To  be  a  "  strong 
Democrat"  or  "strong  Republican"  is  often  to  be 
contemptibly  weak  as  an  American.  Loyalty  to 
party  often  means  disloyalty  to  the  nation.  Party 
platforms  are  seldom  framed  according  to  the  will 
of  the  majority ;  they  are  framed  by  the  leaders, 
and  often  for  the  leaders'  own  personal  purposes. 
In  all  other  lands  where  constitutional  govern- 
ment prevails  the  intelligent  classes  sway  from 
one  party  to  the  other,  according  to  their  opinion 
of  measures  proposed.  Loyalty  is  accorded  to 
the  nation  first,  the  party  afterwards.  The  party 


OUR   GREAT   CONCERN.  635 

is  regarded  as  a  means,  not  an  end ;  it  must  be 
so  regarded  here,  before  we  can  rise  to  the  level 
of  our  opportunities,  and  the  number  and  great- 
ness of  these  opportunities  make  this  duty  more 
imperative  here,  even  for  selfish  reasons,  than 
anywhere  else.  It  is  peculiarly  stupid  and  dis- 
graceful that  any  intelligent  American  should 
be  able  to  say,  with  Sir  Joseph  Porter,  in  "Pina- 
fore : " 

"  I  always  voted  at  my  party's  call, 
And  I  never  thought  of  thinking  for  myself  at  all." 

No  party  should  be  a  voter's  ruler ;  it  is  his 
servant,  and  if  it  is  lazy,  dishonest  or  does  not 
obey  him,  it  should  be  disciplined  or  changed. 

We  must  do  much  else,  by  way  of  vigilance. 
We  must  insist  that  American  land  be  held  only 
by  Americans.  A  great  many  rich  men  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Atlantic  are  willing  and  anx- 
ious to  reproduce  here  a  state  of  affairs  that 
has  made  endless  trouble  in  Europe.  Said  Presi- 
dent Harrison,  while  yet  in  the  Senate :  "  Vast 
tracts  of  our  domain,  not  simply  the  public 
domain  on  the  frontier,  but  in  some  of  our  newer 
States,  are  passing  into  the  hands  of  wealthy 
foreigners.  It  seems  that  the  land  reforms  in 
Ireland,  and  the  movement  in  England  in  favor 
of  the  reduction  of  large  estates  and  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  lands  among  persons  who  will  culti- 
vate them  for  their  own  use,  are  disturbing  the 


636  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

investments  of  some  Englishmen,  and  that  some 
of  them  are  looking  to  this  country  for  the 
acquisition  of  vast  tracts  of  land  which  may  be 
held  by  them  and  let  out  to  tenants,  out  of  the 
rents  of  which  they  may  live  abroad.  This 
evil  requires  early  attention,  and  that  Congress 
should,  by  law,  restrain  the  acquisition  of  such 
tracts  of  land  by  aliens.  Our  policy  should  be 
small  farms,  worked  by  the  men  who  own  them." 
So  says  every  thoughtful  American. 

We  must  give  closer  attention  to  the  army  of 
the  unemployed  if  we  wish  to  avoid  the  bad  in- 
fluence which  discontent,  of  any  class,  has  upon 
the  prosperity  of  the  community.  The  neglect 
of  workers  who  have  no  work  to  do  is  a  blot 
upon  the  fair  fame  of  our  people.  Financially, 
we  do  not  seem  to  be  affected,  one  way  or  other, 
when  a  lot  of  men  are  thrown  out  of  work.  Says 
Mr.  T.  V.  Powderly,  long  the  most  eloquent 
spokesman  of  the  working  class  :  "It  matters  not 
that  the  carpet-mills  suspend  three  hundred 
hands,  the  price  of  carpeting  remains  unchanged. 
The  gingham-mills  and  the  cotton  and  woollen- 
mills  may  reduce  the  wages  of  employes  five  and 
ten  per  cent.,  but  the  price  of  gingham  and  calico 
continues  as  before."  But  the  men  who  suffer — 
they  and  their  families — by  partial  or  total  loss 
of  income,  feel  keenly  the  apathy  of  the  general 
body  of  consumers,  and  their  indignation  and 
suspicion  will  be  sure  to  make  themselves  known 


T.  V.  POWDERLY. 


OUR   GREAT   COXCERN.  637 

unpleasantly  when  least  expected.  We  are  all 
working  men  ;  we  owe  practical  sympathy  to  the 
least  of  our  brethren. 

We  must  make  more  of  the  individual,  and 
unload  fewer  of  our  responsibilities  upon  the 
government,  whether  local,  State  or  national. 
As  editor  Grady,  of  Georgia,  said  recently  to  the 
graduating  class  of  the  University  of  Virginia : 
"  The  man  who  kindles  the  fire  on  the  hearth- 
stone of  an  honest  and  righteous  home  burns  the 
best  incense  to  liberty.  He  does  not  love  man- 
kind less  who  loves  his  neighbor  most.  Exalt 
the  citizen.  As  the  State  is  the  unit  of  govern- 
ment, he  is  the  unit  of  the  State.  Teach  him 
that  his  home  is  his  castle,  and  his  sovereignty 
rests  beneath  his  hat.  Make  him  self-respecting, 
self-reliant  and  responsible.  Let  him  lean  on  the 
State  for  nothing  that  nis  own  arm  can  do,  and 
on  the  government  for  nothing  that  his  State  can 
do.  Let  him  cultivate  independence  to  the  point 
of  sacrifice,  and  learn  that  humble  things  with 
unbartered  liberty  are  better  than  splendors 
bought  with  Itf.  price.  Let  him  neither  sur- 
render his  individuality  to  government  nor  merge 
it  with  the  mob.  Let  him  stand  upright  and 
fearless — a  freeman  bc'/n  of  freemen — sturdy  in 
his  own  strength — dowering  his  family  in  the 
sweat  of  his  brow — loving  to  his  State — loyal  to 
his  Republic — earnest  in  his  allegiance  wherever 
it  rests,  but  building  his  altar  in  the  midst  of 


638  OUR  COUNTRY'S  FUTURE. 

his  household  gods  and  shrining  in  his  own 
heart  the  uttermost  teinpje  of  its  liberty." 

On  all  this,  and  the  general  subject  of  this 
book,  the  editor  begs  to  quote,  in  conclusion,  from 
a  well-known  and  highly  respected  authority. 

;'  Men  and  brethren,  think  on  these  things." 


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